A system for determining a location of a device includes at least two speakers and the device, where each speaker is configured to produce a unique sound. The device includes microphones for receiving sound and for providing signals corresponding thereto, a memory configured to store for each speaker a fingerprint of each unique sound and speaker location information, and a processor connected to the outputs. The processor is configured to determine, by comparing microphone signals to fingerprints, a difference in arrival time of a sound at two microphones, and determine, based on the differences in arrival time, an orientation of the device with respect to the speakers, and to determine the location of the device in the space.

The present application provides an intelligent device, an intelligent speaker, and a method and system for controlling the same. The intelligent device includes a first sound detection module configured to detect a first sound signal directly reaching the first sound detection module; an angle determination module configured to determine a time difference between the receiving time of the first sound signal and the receiving time of the second sound signal, and determine a relative angle between the intelligent device and the intelligent speaker based on a distance between the first sound detection module and the second sound detection module and the time difference; and a transmitting module configured to transmit a notification message containing the relative angle to the intelligent speaker, so that the intelligent speaker directionally transmits a sound to the intelligent device based on the relative angle. Directional sounding based on relative angle calculation is realized.

The present application provides an intelligent device, an intelligent speaker, and a method and system for controlling the same. The intelligent device includes a first sound detection module configured to detect a first sound signal directly reaching the first sound detection module; an angle determination module configured to determine a time difference between the receiving time of the first sound signal and the receiving time of the second sound signal, and determine a relative angle between the intelligent device and the intelligent speaker based on a distance between the first sound detection module and the second sound detection module and the time difference; and a transmitting module configured to transmit a notification message containing the relative angle to the intelligent speaker, so that the intelligent speaker directionally transmits a sound to the intelligent device based on the relative angle. Directional sounding based on relative angle calculation is realized.

A system, apparatus, method and computer program product determine the location of a receiver, such as one or more sensors, carried by a device, e.g., a robot. In a method, an audio signal is received in response to a predetermined audio signal provided by at least two audio source devices. For the audio signal that is received from a respective audio source device, the method estimates a first impulse response between the respective audio source device and the receiver. For the first impulse response estimated between each respective audio source device of the at least two audio source devices and the receiver, the method removes one or more reflections from the first impulse response to create direct path information. The method also includes determining a location of the receiver based at least in part upon the direct path information.

A system, apparatus, method and computer program product determine the location of a receiver, such as one or more sensors, carried by a device, e.g., a robot. In a method, an audio signal is received in response to a predetermined audio signal provided by at least two audio source devices. For the audio signal that is received from a respective audio source device, the method estimates a first impulse response between the respective audio source device and the receiver. For the first impulse response estimated between each respective audio source device of the at least two audio source devices and the receiver, the method removes one or more reflections from the first impulse response to create direct path information. The method also includes determining a location of the receiver based at least in part upon the direct path information.

A method for determining a position of a positioning device, for synchronization of positioning devices, and/or for synchronization of slave anchor electronic devices. The method is performed by a system having a master anchor electronic device, and a plurality of slave anchor electronic devices including a first slave anchor electronic device. The method includes broadcasting, from the master anchor electronic device, a first ultra-wide band (UWB) signal, at a first predetermined time. The method includes receiving, at the first slave anchor electronic device, the first UWB signal. The method includes determining, at the first slave anchor electronic device, a first transmission time based on the first UWB signal. The method includes broadcasting, from the first slave anchor electronic device, a second UWB signal at the first transmission time.

A method for determining position of an aircraft with reference to a location on the ground includes transmitting an acoustic signal from a position on the aircraft to an array of spaced apart acoustic sensors proximate the location. The method includes at least one of (i) determining a time difference of arrival of the acoustic signal between each of the acoustic sensors and a reference acoustic sensor and (ii) determining an arrival time of the acoustic signal at each of the spaced apart acoustic sensors. The position of the aircraft is determined from the time differences of arrival and/or the arrival times.

A method for determining position of an aircraft with reference to a location on the ground includes transmitting an acoustic signal from a position on the aircraft to an array of spaced apart acoustic sensors proximate the location. The method includes at least one of (i) determining a time difference of arrival of the acoustic signal between each of the acoustic sensors and a reference acoustic sensor and (ii) determining an arrival time of the acoustic signal at each of the spaced apart acoustic sensors. The position of the aircraft is determined from the time differences of arrival and/or the arrival times.

A practically implementable robust direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation approach that is resistant to localization errors due to mobility, multipath reflections, impulsive noise, and multiple-access interference. As part of the disclosed invention the inventors consider infrastructure-less 3D localization of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with no GPS assistance and no availability of global clock synchronization. The proposed method can be extended to challenging communication environments and applied for the localization of assets/objects in space, underground, intrabody, underwater and other complex, challenging, congested and sometimes contested environments. Each AUV leverages known-location beacon signals to self-localize and can simultaneously report its sensor data and measurement location. The approach uses two known location beacon nodes, where the beacons are single-hydrophone acoustic nodes that are deployed at known locations and transmit time-domain coded signals in a spread-spectrum fashion.

A practically implementable robust direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation approach that is resistant to localization errors due to mobility, multipath reflections, impulsive noise, and multiple-access interference. As part of the disclosed invention the inventors consider infrastructure-less 3D localization of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with no GPS assistance and no availability of global clock synchronization. The proposed method can be extended to challenging communication environments and applied for the localization of assets/objects in space, underground, intrabody, underwater and other complex, challenging, congested and sometimes contested environments. Each AUV leverages known-location beacon signals to self-localize and can simultaneously report its sensor data and measurement location. The approach uses two known location beacon nodes, where the beacons are single-hydrophone acoustic nodes that are deployed at known locations and transmit time-domain coded signals in a spread-spectrum fashion.