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Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors
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Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2021) | Viewed by 30563

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Jangmyung Lee

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics Engineering, Pusan National University, Pusan 46241, Republic of Korea
Interests: tactile sensors; force/torque sensors; IMU applications; GPS applications; vision sensor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ultrasonic signals are very useful for communications, localizations, and measurements. They are invisible and non-audible, which makes them very effective for private purposes.

This Special Issue is aimed at representing the latest advances in the applications of ultrasonic sensors. We welcome contributions in all fields of ultrasonic sensor applications, including new designs of ultrasonic sensors and signal processing algorithms.

Those include but are not limited to:

  • Ultrasonic communication systems;
  • Localization using ultrasonic signals;
  • Ultrasonic signal processing;
  • Ultrasonic 2D or 3D imaging;
  • Moving target indications;
  • Compressive sensing;
  • Emerging transmitters of opportunity for ultrasonic signals.

Prof. Dr. Jangmyung Lee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ultrasonic communication
  • localization using ultrasonic signals
  • ultrasonic signal processing
  • ultrasonic measurement
  • ultrasonic sensor design
  • ultrasonic imaging

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 16094 KiB  
Article
Stochastic Identification of Guided Wave Propagation under Ambient Temperature via Non-Stationary Time Series Models
by Shabbir Ahmed and Fotis Kopsaftopoulos
Sensors 2021, 21(16), 5672; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21165672 - 23 Aug 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3138
Abstract
In the context of active-sensing guided-wave-based acousto-ultrasound structural health monitoring, environmental and operational variability poses a considerable challenge in the damage diagnosis process as they may mask the presence of damage. In this work, the stochastic nature of guided wave propagation due to [...] Read more.
In the context of active-sensing guided-wave-based acousto-ultrasound structural health monitoring, environmental and operational variability poses a considerable challenge in the damage diagnosis process as they may mask the presence of damage. In this work, the stochastic nature of guided wave propagation due to the small temperature variation, naturally occurring in the ambient or environment, is rigorously investigated and modeled with the help of stochastic time-varying time series models, for the first time, with a system identification point of view. More specifically, the output-only recursive maximum likelihood time-varying auto-regressive model (RML-TAR) is employed to investigate the uncertainty in guided wave propagation by analyzing the time-varying model parameters. The steps and facets of the identification procedure are presented, and the obtained model is used for modeling the uncertainty of the time-varying model parameters that capture the underlying dynamics of the guided waves. The stochasticity inherent in the modal properties of the system, such as natural frequencies and damping ratios, is also analyzed with the help of the identified RML-TAR model. It is stressed that the narrow-band high-frequency actuation for guided wave propagation excites more than one frequency in the system. The values and the time evolution of those frequencies are analyzed, and the associated uncertainties are also investigated. In addition, a high-fidelity finite element (FE) model was established and Monte Carlo simulations on that FE model were carried out to understand the effect of small temperature perturbation on guided wave signals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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10 pages, 727 KiB  
Communication
Water Content Monitoring in Water-in-Crude-Oil Emulsions Using an Ultrasonic Multiple-Backscattering Sensor
by Alberto L. Durán, Ediguer E. Franco, Carlos A. B. Reyna, Nicolás Pérez, Marcos S. G. Tsuzuki and Flávio Buiochi
Sensors 2021, 21(15), 5088; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21155088 - 27 Jul 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2582
Abstract
This work shows the application of an ultrasonic multiple-scattering sensor for monitoring water-in-petroleum emulsions. The sensor consists of a commercial ultrasonic transducer with an array of cylindrical scatterers placed in the near field. The scatterers are thin metal bars arranged in rows in [...] Read more.
This work shows the application of an ultrasonic multiple-scattering sensor for monitoring water-in-petroleum emulsions. The sensor consists of a commercial ultrasonic transducer with an array of cylindrical scatterers placed in the near field. The scatterers are thin metal bars arranged in rows in front of the transducer. The backscattering signals were analyzed by calculating the wave energy and by a cross-correlation between signal segments; they were also used to determine the propagation velocity in the emulsions. The tests performed used emulsions with water volume concentrations from 0% to 50%. The results showed that both the signal energy and propagation velocity strongly depended on the concentration of water in the emulsion. Therefore, the ultrasonic multiple-scattering sensor can be used for on-line and real-time monitoring of the water content in water-in-crude-oil emulsions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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24 pages, 39532 KiB  
Article
Development of a 2-D Array Ultrasonic Transducer for 3-D Imaging of Objects Immersed in Water
by Estevão Patricio Rodrigues, Timoteo Francisco de Oliveira, Marcelo Yassunori Matuda and Flávio Buiochi
Sensors 2021, 21(10), 3501; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21103501 - 18 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 9072
Abstract
Most works that address 2-D array ultrasonic transducers for underwater applications are about the geometry aspects of the array and beamforming techniques to make 3-D images. They look for techniques to reduce the number of elements from wide apertures, maintaining the side lobes [...] Read more.
Most works that address 2-D array ultrasonic transducers for underwater applications are about the geometry aspects of the array and beamforming techniques to make 3-D images. They look for techniques to reduce the number of elements from wide apertures, maintaining the side lobes and the grating lobes at acceptable levels, but not many details about the materials and fabrication processes are described. To overcome these gaps, this paper presents in detail the development of a 2-D array ultrasonic transducer prototype that can individually emit and receive ultrasonic pulses to make 3-D images of immersed reflectors within a volume of interest (VOI). It consists of a 4 × 4 matrix ultrasonic transducer with a central frequency of 480 kHz. Each element is a 5 mm sided square cut into a 1–3 piezocomposite. The center-to-center distance of two contiguous elements (pitch) was chosen to be greater than half wavelength, to increase the amplitude of emission and reception of signals with larger elements. Artifacts generated by grating lobes were avoided by restricting the field of view in the azimuth and elevation directions within 40° × 40° and applying the sign coherence factor (SCF) filter. Two types of backing layer materials were tested, one with air and another made of epoxy resin, on the transducers called T1 and T2, respectively. The pulse echoes measured with T1 had 2.6 dB higher amplitude than those measured with T2, and the bandwidths were 54% and 50% @ −6 dB, respectively, exciting the element with a single rectangular negative pulse. The 3-D images obtained with full matrix capture (FMC) data sets acquired of objects from 0.2 to 1.15 m motivate the development of a 2-D array transducer with more elements, to increase the angular resolution and the range. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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25 pages, 2013 KiB  
Article
Asynchronous Chirp Slope Keying for Underwater Acoustic Communication
by Dominik Jan Schott, Andrea Gabbrielli, Wenxin Xiong, Georg Fischer, Fabian Höflinger, Johannes Wendeberg, Christian Schindelhauer and Stefan Johann Rupitsch
Sensors 2021, 21(9), 3282; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21093282 - 10 May 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3238
Abstract
We propose an asynchronous acoustic chirp slope keying to map short bit sequences on single or multiple bands without preamble or error correction coding on the physical layer. We introduce a symbol detection scheme in the demodulator that uses the superposed matched filter [...] Read more.
We propose an asynchronous acoustic chirp slope keying to map short bit sequences on single or multiple bands without preamble or error correction coding on the physical layer. We introduce a symbol detection scheme in the demodulator that uses the superposed matched filter results of up and down chirp references to estimate the symbol timing, which removes the requirement of a preamble for symbol synchronization. Details of the implementation are disclosed and discussed, and the performance is verified in a pool measurement on laboratory scale, as well as the simulation for a channel containing Rayleigh fading and Additive White Gaussian Noise. For time-bandwidth products (TB) of 50 in single band mode, a raw data rate of 100 bit/s is simulated to achieve bit error rates (BER) below 0.001 for signal-to-noise ratios above −6 dB. In dual-band mode, for TB of 25 and a data rate of 200 bit/s, the same bit error level was achieved for signal-to-noise ratios above 0 dB. The simulated packet error rates (PER) follow the general behavior of the BER, but with a higher error probability, which increases with the length of bits in each packet. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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14 pages, 2922 KiB  
Article
A New Approach to Power Efficiency Improvement of Ultrasonic Transmitters via a Dynamic Bias Technique
by Kyeongjin Kim and Hojong Choi
Sensors 2021, 21(8), 2795; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21082795 - 15 Apr 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3281
Abstract
To obtain a high-quality signal from an ultrasound system through the transmitter, it is necessary to achieve an appropriate operating point of the power amplifier in the ultrasonic transmitter by applying high static bias voltage. However, the power amplifier needs to be operated [...] Read more.
To obtain a high-quality signal from an ultrasound system through the transmitter, it is necessary to achieve an appropriate operating point of the power amplifier in the ultrasonic transmitter by applying high static bias voltage. However, the power amplifier needs to be operated at low bias voltage, because a power amplifier operating at high bias voltage may consume a large amount of power and increase the temperature of the active devices, worsening the signal characteristics of the ultrasound systems. Therefore, we propose a new method of increasing the bias voltage for a specific period to solve this problem by reducing the output signal distortion of the power amplifier and decreasing the load on the active device. To compare the performance of the proposed method, we measured and compared the signals of the amplifier with the proposed technique and the amplifier only. Notably, improvement was achieved with 11.1% of the power added efficiency and 3.23% of the total harmonic distortion (THD). Additionally, the echo signal generated by the ultrasonic transducer was improved by 2.73 dB of amplitude and 0.028% of THD under the conditions of an input signal of 10 mW. Therefore, the proposed method could be useful for improving ultrasonic transmitter performance using the developed technique. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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14 pages, 4183 KiB  
Article
Mode Analysis of Pt/LGS Surface Acoustic Wave Devices
by Hongsheng Xu, Hao Jin, Shurong Dong, Xinyu Song, Jinkai Chen, Weipeng Xuan, Shuyi Huang, Lin Shi and Jikui Luo
Sensors 2020, 20(24), 7111; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20247111 - 11 Dec 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3039
Abstract
Platinum (Pt) gratings on langasite (LGS) substrates are a widely used structures in high temperature surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Multiple modes can be excited in Pt/LGS SAW devices owing to the heavy weight of the Pt electrode and leaky waves [...] Read more.
Platinum (Pt) gratings on langasite (LGS) substrates are a widely used structures in high temperature surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Multiple modes can be excited in Pt/LGS SAW devices owing to the heavy weight of the Pt electrode and leaky waves in the LGS substrate. In this work, we report on a detailed mode analysis of Pt/LGS SAW devices, where three commonly used LGS cuts are considered. A three-dimensional (3D) finite element method (FEM) numerical model was developed, and the simulation and experiment results were compared. The experiment and simulation results showed that there are two modes excited in the Pt/LGS SAW devices with Euler angle (0°, 138.5°, 27°) and (0°, 138.5°, 117°), which are Rayleigh-type SAW and SH-type leaky wave, respectively. Only the Rayleigh-type mode was observed in the Pt/LGS SAW devices with Euler angle (0°, 138.5°, 72°). It was found that the acoustic velocities are dependent on the wavelength, which is attributed to the change of wave penetration depth in interdigital transducers (IDTs) and the velocity dispersion can be modulated by the thickness of the Pt electrode. We also demonstrated that addition of an Al2O3 passivation layer has no effect on the wave modes, but can increase the resonant frequencies. This paper provides a better understanding of the acoustic modes of Pt/LGS SAW devices, as well as useful guidance for device design. It is believed that the Rayleigh-type SAW and SH-type leaky waves are potentially useful for dual-mode sensing applications in harsh environments, to achieve multi-parameter monitoring or temperature-compensation on a single chip. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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26 pages, 10664 KiB  
Article
Accuracy of Solid-State Residential Water Meters under Intermittent Flow Conditions
by Francisco J. Arregui, Laura Pastor-Jabaloyes, Angel V. Mercedes and Francesc J. Gavara
Sensors 2020, 20(18), 5339; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20185339 - 17 Sep 2020
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4815
Abstract
Accurate water consumption measurement of customers is a crucial component of water utility sustainability. During the last decade, sophisticated measuring technologies without moving components, known as solid-state water meters or static meters, have emerged. Solid-state water meters promise an improved accuracy with more [...] Read more.
Accurate water consumption measurement of customers is a crucial component of water utility sustainability. During the last decade, sophisticated measuring technologies without moving components, known as solid-state water meters or static meters, have emerged. Solid-state water meters promise an improved accuracy with more processing and transmission capabilities in comparison with traditional mechanical meters. A compromise needs to be reached between energy consumption and battery life as all these new features are extremely demanding on electric energy. The usual approach adopted by the manufacturer is to reduce the frequency with which static meters take measurements of the circulating flow. This reduction in signal sampling frequency can have a significant effect on the accuracy of the instruments when measuring water consumption events of 30 s or less, these events being common in residential customers. The research presented analyses of the metrological performance of 28 commercially available solid-state water meters from six different manufacturers in the presence of intermittent flows of various durations. The results show that the magnitude and dispersion of the error under intermittent flows is significantly larger in comparison to steady state flow conditions. The ultrasonic meters examined were more influenced by the intermittency than the electromagnetic meters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Ultrasonic Sensors)
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