The arrangements of the present disclosure provide a locating apparatus, a locating method, and a shelf. The locating apparatus includes a rotating mechanism, a distance measuring mechanism, and a locating circuit. The rotating mechanism is configured to control the distance measuring mechanism to rotate in a plane where the distance measuring mechanism is positioned, and to measure a rotation angle of the distance measuring mechanism in the plane. The distance measuring mechanism is configured to measure a distance between the distance measuring mechanism and an obstacle. The locating circuit is configured to determine a position of the obstacle in the plane based on the rotation angle of the distance measuring mechanism in the plane and the distance between the distance measuring mechanism and the obstacle.

Techniques are described herein for displacing liquid away from a signal path of sonic signals in a signal anemometer. A sonic anemometer may include a membrane positioned between a sonic transducer and the open environment. The membrane may be formed of a hydrophobic material that repels the liquid. The membrane may also include a plurality of pores that impede the flow of liquid through the membrane but enables sonic signals to pass through the membrane. The sonic anemometer may also include a reflector that displaces liquid away from the signal path of the sonic anemometer. The reflector may include one or more pores that wick liquid away from the signal path.

A marine sonar device comprises a display, a sonar element, and a processing element. The display displays sonar images. The sonar element generates a sonar beam during a ping and presents transducer signals. The processing element is configured to instruct the sonar element to generate the sonar beam at a first frequency during a first ping, receive a first transducer signal resulting from received reflections of the sonar beam at the first frequency, filter the first transducer signal to exclude frequencies other than the first frequency, instruct the sonar element to generate the sonar beam at a second frequency during a second ping, the second frequency being different from the first frequency, receive a second transducer signal resulting from received reflections of the sonar beam at the second frequency, and filter the second transducer signal to exclude frequencies other than the second frequency.

An acoustic detection system for detecting at least partly submerged targets in a sensitive area defined with respect to an infrastructure, the detection system includes at least one multistatic detection group, each multistatic detection group defining a detection area, and comprising: a submerged transmitter emitting at low frequencies; a plurality of submerged receivers comprising at least two receivers, each receiver of a given group forming, with the transmitter of the group, a bistatic pair, each bistatic pair generating an elementary detection area surrounding a blind zone, the detection area of the group being formed by all of the elementary detection areas of the receivers of the group, the receivers being arranged in at least one layer. For at least one group of the system, the form described by the receivers of at least one layer of the group is an at least partly circular form of given radius, the inter-receiver distance between two adjacent receivers of the layer depending on the distance between the transmitter of the group and the rectilinear segment linking the adjacent receivers of the layer, called reference transmitter-receiver distance.

Object detection may include transmitting, by a first device, a first pulse into an environment using a wide field configuration of an ultrasonic sensor array, detecting a presence of an object in the environment based on a detected echo based on the first pulse. In response to detecting the presence of the object, a targeted configuration of the ultrasonic sensor array is determined, and a second pulse is transmitted into the environment based on the second pulse, wherein a characteristic of the object is determined based on a detected echo from the second pulse.

An ultrasonic sensor in the invention includes an ultrasonic transmitter, an ultrasonic receiver, and a detector. The ultrasonic transmitter transmits pulse-shaped ultrasonic waves to a thin plate to excite the thin plate. The ultrasonic receiver receives direct waves and reflected waves among the ultrasonic waves propagating in the thin plate excited by the pulse-shaped ultrasonic waves, the direct waves propagating only in the thin plate, and the reflected waves radiating outward, then reflected by the object, and returning to the thin plate. The detector detects the object present near the thin plate on the basis of a difference between a time at which the ultrasonic receiver receives the direct waves and a time at which the ultrasonic receiver receives the reflected waves.

A wireless sonar receiver is provided including a wireless receiver configured to receive sonar data from a wireless sonar transducer configured to receive sonar returns from an underwater environment as first sonar return data, convert the first sonar return data into sonar image data, and transmit the sonar image data wirelessly to the wireless sonar receiver. The wireless sonar receiver also includes a receiver processor and a receiver memory including computer program code configured to, with the receiver processor, cause the wireless sonar receiver to convert the sonar image data to second sonar return data corresponding to the sonar returns received by the wireless sonar transducer. The wireless sonar transducer also includes an output port configured to transmit the second sonar return data to a marine electronic device for processing of the second sonar return data to generate at least one sonar image for display on a user interface.

A diagnostic method is provided for a vision sensor of a vehicle. The diagnostic method includes the steps of: determining a first position and a direction of movement of the vehicle; selecting a stationary landmark suitable for being detected by the vision sensor from a landmark database, wherein the landmark is located in front of the vehicle in the direction of movement of the vehicle, wherein a distance from the first position of the vehicle to the landmark is greater than the target range of the vision sensor; detecting the landmark via the vision sensor and, in response to a successful detection of the landmark by the vision sensor; determining a second position of the vehicle; determining an actual range of the vision sensor as the distance between the second position of the vehicle and the landmark.

An object detection apparatus for detecting an object around a moving object by transmitting a probe wave and receiving reflections of the probe wave from the object via the plurality of ranging sensors. In the apparatus, an interaction determiner is configured to, if an object position calculated by a position calculator is within a range of a moving-object's course, determine whether or not the detected object is likely to interact with the moving object based on a lateral position of the detected object and a degree of confidence of the object position calculated by the position calculator. The lateral position of the detected object is the object position calculated by the position calculator in a direction perpendicular to a moving direction of the moving object.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a navigation system which, on the one hand, is arranged on sides of the underwater vehicle/AUV and, on the other hand, includes a surface transmitter as a counterpart. The two units communicate with each other such that the surface transmitter emits its signal directed to the position of the underwater vehicle and/or that the surface transmitter follows the underwater vehicle to improve the position determination capability.