A method for identifying a road condition of a road. A piece of road condition information representing the road condition is determined using a noise level detected by at least one ultrasonic sensor of a vehicle and a bottom echo detected from a road surface in the area of the vehicle.

A method for identifying a road condition of a road. A piece of road condition information representing the road condition is determined using a noise level detected by at least one ultrasonic sensor of a vehicle and a bottom echo detected from a road surface in the area of the vehicle.

An ultrasonic wave measuring device including an ultrasonic wave device and a processor. The ultrasonic wave device transmits transmission ultrasonic waves toward an object, receives reflected ultrasonic waves, and outputs reception signals. The processor is configured to: detect a transmission time; detect zero-crossing points of the reception signals; detect zero-crossing times; calculate periods of time between the transmission time and each of the zero-crossing times; compare a reference period of time with each of the calculated periods of time so as to generate difference values therebetween; determine a minimum value among the difference values; and set a corresponding zero-crossing point having the minimum value as a reception zero-crossing point. The ultrasonic wave measuring device is configured to measure a distance toward the object based on the period of time between the zero-crossing time corresponding to the reception zero-crossing point and the transmission time.

Techniques are provided for implementing an end-fire synthetic aperture sonar system. A methodology implementing the techniques according to an embodiment includes generating a plurality of matched-filtered signals (pings) based on correlations of a transmitted sonar signal with a plurality of reflected or scattered returns of the transmitted signal received from a hydrophone, the reflected or scattered returns associated with a plurality of locations of the hydrophone relative to a location of a transmitter. The method further includes generating a coarse estimate of the locations of the hydrophone based on incoherent cross correlations of the pings, and generating a refined estimate of the locations of the hydrophone based on the coarse estimate and further based on coherent cross correlations of the pings. The method further includes performing delay-and-sum beamforming to combine the pings, the beamforming employing time delays based on the estimated locations of the hydrophone.

Techniques are provided for implementing an end-fire synthetic aperture sonar system. A methodology implementing the techniques according to an embodiment includes generating a plurality of matched-filtered signals (pings) based on correlations of a transmitted sonar signal with a plurality of reflected or scattered returns of the transmitted signal received from a hydrophone, the reflected or scattered returns associated with a plurality of locations of the hydrophone relative to a location of a transmitter. The method further includes generating a coarse estimate of the locations of the hydrophone based on incoherent cross correlations of the pings, and generating a refined estimate of the locations of the hydrophone based on the coarse estimate and further based on coherent cross correlations of the pings. The method further includes performing delay-and-sum beamforming to combine the pings, the beamforming employing time delays based on the estimated locations of the hydrophone.

A method is provided for classifying an object, in particular in the surroundings of a motor vehicle, using an ultrasonic sensor system, the ultrasonic sensor system including a plurality of spatially distributed ultrasonic sensors. A plurality of measurements are carried out continuously during a measurement, an ultrasonic signal being emitted by one of the ultrasonic sensors, a signal being received by at least one of the ultrasonic sensors which includes a plurality of reflected echo signals, so-called multiple echoes, and the received echo signals being associated with an object. A plurality of features may be determined from the received echo signals. The object is classified as a function of a combination of at least two of these features, in particular as a pedestrian.

A method is provided for classifying an object, in particular in the surroundings of a motor vehicle, using an ultrasonic sensor system, the ultrasonic sensor system including a plurality of spatially distributed ultrasonic sensors. A plurality of measurements are carried out continuously during a measurement, an ultrasonic signal being emitted by one of the ultrasonic sensors, a signal being received by at least one of the ultrasonic sensors which includes a plurality of reflected echo signals, so-called multiple echoes, and the received echo signals being associated with an object. A plurality of features may be determined from the received echo signals. The object is classified as a function of a combination of at least two of these features, in particular as a pedestrian.

Disclosed are an ultrasonic sensor, a parking assistance system including the ultrasonic sensor, and a signal processing method, the ultrasonic sensor being provided with two different signal processing paths referred to as a data compression unit and a data extractor and transmitting both processed signal data to a controller by a data transmitter, thereby complementing the advantages of each signal processing path to enhance the precision of the detection result of the sensor.

A processing system for processing signals from a plurality of transducers of an ultrasonic sensor in order to determine characteristic information relating to an object detected by the ultrasonic sensor is provided. The system comprises a coupling device for transforming the signals received from the transducers into pulses, and a pulse processing unit for determining the characteristic information based on the pulses delivered by the coupling device. The coupling device comprises: a thresholding unit for applying, for each signal received from a transducer, thresholding to a signal derived from the signal received from the transducer and extracting directional information contained in the phase of the derived signal; a transformation unit for transforming the derived signal into pulses containing the phase of the signal, using the information extracted by the thresholding unit.

Disclose are various approaches for optimizing operation of an autonomous wireless mobile asset monitoring system. The approaches involve detecting the presence of cargo in a mobile asset. First, if energy conservation is a requirement of the system, each zone of the mobile asset is scanned until cargo is detected in one of the zones. Then, the results of the scan are transmitted to backend infrastructure. Alternatively, if energy conservation is not a requirement of the system, every zone of the mobile asset is scanned and the results of the scan are transmitted to backend infrastructure.