Prototype of an echolocation system using real-time signal processing

• Main Author: Koh, Bernard Geng Hao
• Other Authors: Ji-Jon Sit
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139504
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Bats, Beluga whales and even humans are known to have the ability to echolocate. They are capable of producing a spatial mapping of their environment just from sending a signal out and collecting the echoes. It shows that echoes can achieve more than just informing the users of its directionality. This Final Year Project aims to reproduce a 2D location map of a target using echolocation. The hardware, which is inspired by nature’s natural echolocator, bats, would consist of a speaker and two microphones which acts as its mouth and ears respectively. The ‘brain’ of the echolocation system would be the Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Network which would pick up the returning echoes and process them to classify the target’s range and azimuth. The final echolocation system accomplished is capable of real time target classification where the changes in the target’s position can be accurately detected and updated on a heat map of the environment. The echolocation system uses sub ultrasonic frequency (16 kHz to 20 kHz) and is capable of detecting beyond 1.5 metres in range and azimuth.