PMUT-Enabled Underwater Acoustic Source Localization System

The present work presents the novel application of Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (PMUT) arrays in an Underwater Acoustic Source Localization System. Based on the difference in the time of arrival of ultrasonic bursts originating from an acoustic beacon, the system is capable of determining the direction to the source with no theoretical limitation on the angular range. A cross correlation technique is used to estimate the time of arrival difference between the received signals. Experiments are performed with the prototype submerged in liquid in a tank for arbitrary positions of a beacon, showing large potential for application of the system in a miniaturized, integrated platform for underwater source localization.

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