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The International Journal of Robotics Research
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Mobile Robot Sonar Backscatter Algorithm for Automatically Distinguishing Walls, Fences, and Hedges

Wen Gao

The College of William and Mary in Virginia, Department of Applied Science, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA

Mark Hinders

The College of William and Mary in Virginia, Department of Applied Science, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795, USA, hinders{at}as.wm.edu

We present an algorithm to distinguish several types of brick walls, picket fences, and hedges based on the analysis of backscattered sonar echoes. The echo data are acquired by a mobile robot with a single-transducer 50 kHz pulse-echo sonar computer-controlled scanning system packaged as its sensor head. For several locations along a wall, fence, or hedge, a fan of backscatter sonar echoes is acquired, digitized, and stored on a computer as the sonar transducer is swept over a horizontal arc. Off-line, each digitized echo waveform is then rectified, smoothed, and summed to give a measure of the backscatter strength. This backscatter is then plotted versus scan angle, with a series of N-peak deformable templates fit to these data for each scan. The number of peaks in the best-fitting N-peak template indicates the presence and location of retro-reflectors, and allows automatic categorization of the various fences, hedges, and brick walls.

Key Words: sonar • mobile robot • deformable template matching • feature extraction

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 25, No. 2, 135-145 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364906059328
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