A High-Resolution Ultrasonic Distance Measurement System Using Vernier Caliper Phase Meter

An ultrasonic distance measurement system for use in air is presented. The measurement is based upon the two-frequency continuous-wave (TFCW) phase-shift method. In the system, two Vernier caliper phase meters are used to measure the phase-shift data. The phase meter circuit developed to emulate the Vernier caliper to measure the phase shift is able to eliminate the measuring error and produce higher resolution results without increasing the clock frequency. A single-chip microprocessor is used to control the TFCW phase-shift measurement and send the data to a personal computer for distance calibration and examination. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the system is ±0.1362 mm and the distance resolution is 0.04% of the wavelength corresponding to the 40-kHz ultrasonic wave at a range of 50-200 mm. Therefore, the main advantages of this system are high resolution, high accuracy, low cost, and ease of implementation.

[1]  C. Narduzzi,et al.  Digital time of flight measurement for ultrasonic sensors , 1991, [1991] Conference Record. IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference.

[2]  Enrique Barbieri,et al.  An ultrasonic ranging system for structural vibration measurements , 1991 .

[3]  F. M. Espinosa,et al.  Accurate, sensitive, and fully automatic method to measure sound velocity and attenuation , 1994 .

[4]  Yu-Pei Huang,et al.  Multiple-frequency ultrasonic distance measurement using direct digital frequency synthesizers , 2009 .

[5]  Dennis A. Bohn.  Environmental Effects on the Speed of Sound , 1988 .

[6]  Canhui Cai,et al.  Accurate digital time-of-flight measurement using self-interference , 1993 .

[7]  Y. P. Huang,et al.  Envelope pulsed ultrasonic distance measurement system based upon amplitude modulation and phase modulation. , 2007, The Review of scientific instruments.

[9]  C. Fritsch,et al.  Digital signal processing techniques for high accuracy ultrasonic range measurements , 1991 .

[10]  George S. K. Wong,et al.  Variation of the speed of sound in air with humidity and temperature , 1985 .

[11]  D. Webster.  A pulsed ultrasonic distance measurement system based upon phase digitizing , 1994 .

[12]  Ming-Shing Young,et al.  Multiple-frequency continuous wave ultrasonic system for accurate distance measurement , 1999 .

[13]  Ming-Shing Young,et al.  A high precision ultrasonic system for vibration measurements , 1992 .

[14]  L. Angrisani,et al.  A measurement method based on Kalman filtering for ultrasonic time-of-flight estimation , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.

[15]  F. Gueuning,et al.  Accurate distance measurement by an autonomous ultrasonic system combining time-of-flight and phase-shift methods , 1996, Quality Measurement: The Indispensable Bridge between Theory and Reality (No Measurements? No Science! Joint Conference - 1996: IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference and IMEKO Tec.

[16]  S. L. Hill,et al.  A multifrequency AM-based ultrasonic system for accuracy distance measurement , 1994 .

[17]  Ming-Shing Young,et al.  A high accuracy ultrasonic distance measurement system using binary frequency shift-keyed signal and phase detection , 2002 .

[18]  Enrique Barbieri,et al.  A method for short or long range time-of-flight measurements using phase-detection with an analog circuit , 2001, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas..