An Ultrasonic Object Detection Applying the ID Based on Spread Spectrum Technique for a Vehicle

When an ultrasonic sensor generates an ultrasonic wave and detects an obstacle from a reflected wave, a signal transmitted by other ultrasonic sensors would be interference. In this paper, to overcome the interference, a transducer transmits a signal with a unique ID modulated. The interference is ignored by verifying that the reflected signal includes its ID. The ID verification process uses a correlation between the received signal and the ID. Therefore, the ID is selected from orthogonal codes with good cross-correlation. Long code has the advantage of being more robust to interference. However, the reflected wave from nearby obstacles might return before the transmission ends. Therefore, the 7-bit Barker code is applied for near obstacle detection and a 31-bit Gold code is used for distant obstacle detection. The modulation technique is DQPSK, which is available in a narrow bandwidth and has a simple receiver structure. In ID recognition based on correlation, a near-far problem occurs due to a large amplitude difference between the received wave and interference. The addition of a zero-crossing detector solves this problem. The hardware is implemented based on the algorithm proposed in this paper. The simulation showed a detection rate of at least 90% and the the result of the real measurement represented a detection rate of 97.3% at 0.5 m and 94.5% at 2 m.