A CTFM acoustic spatial sensing technology: its use by blind persons and robots

Abstract

A binaural sonar sensor for blind persons which models the bat sonar is described. System performance with field plots are presented along with signal analysis on objects forming targets. The distal spatial resolution is little more than one wavelength at the lowest frequency of 50 kHz. The operating bandwidth is 50 kHz producing the power to discriminate between objects. Distance and direction information is obtained over a field of view of 50 degrees within one frequency sweep. Blind persons have demonstrated mobility akin to sighted mobility. This knowledge is of value in designing robots.