Ultrasound communication system for metal structure and related methods
First Claim
1. An ultrasound communication system embedded in a metal airframe structure, of an aircraft, the system comprising:
- an aircraft having a metal airframe structure;
a plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters embedded in the metal airframe structure, to operate asynchronously and transmit modulated ultrasound communications along the metal airframe structure;
a modulator in communication with each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters to modulate each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters so that Lamb waves are propagated along the metal airframe structure; and
an ultrasound receiver positioned remote from the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters and connected to the aircraft to receive modulated ultrasound communication from the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of the present invention beneficially provide an ultrasound communication system and methods of ultrasound communication for diagnostics and prognostics of structures. For example, ultrasound transmitters are connected to a metal or composite structure and modulated to produce Lamb waves that travel to an ultrasound receiver. The ultrasound transmitters can use frequency-hopped signals to digitally encode transducer information among different transmitters. The transmitters can be operated asynchronously. The receiver can use a channel equalizer to reduce the effects of signal multipath and a decoder to decode the transducer information from the ultrasound transmitters.
32 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An ultrasound communication system embedded in a metal airframe structure, of an aircraft, the system comprising:
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an aircraft having a metal airframe structure; a plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters embedded in the metal airframe structure, to operate asynchronously and transmit modulated ultrasound communications along the metal airframe structure; a modulator in communication with each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters to modulate each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters so that Lamb waves are propagated along the metal airframe structure; and an ultrasound receiver positioned remote from the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters and connected to the aircraft to receive modulated ultrasound communication from the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An ultrasound communication system to embed in metal structure, the system comprising:
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a metal structure; a plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters each connected to and spaced-apart along the metal structure to transmit modulated ultrasound communications along the structure; an ultrasound receiver positioned remote from the plurality of ultrasound transmitters and connected to the structure to receive modulated ultrasound communication from each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters; and at least one modulator in communication with each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters to modulate each of the plurality of ultrasound transducers so that modulated ultrasound communications is transmitted from each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters, the plurality of ultrasound transmitters being operable asynchronously to transmit ultrasound communication to the ultrasound receiver, and the ultrasound receiver including a channel equalizer to reduce the effects of signal multipath and a decoder to decode the modulated ultrasound communication received from each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters. - View Dependent Claims (8, 11)
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9. An ultrasound communication system to embed in metal structure, the system comprising:
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a metal structure, the metal structure being selected from the group of;
an airframe, a wing of an aircraft, a fuselage of an aircraft, a shipping container, a pipe, a bridge frame, a metal plate, or skin of an aircraft wing;a plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters each connected to and spaced-apart along the metal structure to transmit modulated ultrasound communications along the structure, each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters and the ultrasound receiver including a piezoelectric device; and an ultrasound receiver positioned remote from the plurality of ultrasound transmitters and connected to the structure to receive modulated ultrasound communication from each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters, the structure also including at least one lap joint positioned between at least one of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters and the ultrasound receiver, the ultrasound communication within the system being only one-way between each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters and the ultrasound receiver. - View Dependent Claims (10)
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12. A method of ultrasound communication, the method comprising:
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mounting a plurality of ultrasound transmitters in spaced-apart relation along a structure; mounting an ultrasound receiver to the structure remote from each of the plurality of ultrasound transmitters; modulating each of the plurality of transmitters with a preselected modulation scheme;
transmitting ultrasound data communication from at least one of the plurality of transmitters along the structure to the ultrasound receiver;receiving the ultrasound communication at the ultrasound receiver; and demodulating the received ultrasound communication. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An ultrasound communication system having at least portions thereof embedded in a metal structure, the system comprising:
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a metal structure; a plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters each embedded in the metal structure so that when operating each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters transmits ultrasound communication along the metal structure; a modulator in communication with each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters to modulate each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters so that Lamb waves are propagated along the metal structure, the modulator including a frequency generator to generate a frequency scheme among the plurality of wireless transmitters, the frequency generator comprising a frequency-lap generator to thereby digitally encode frequency lapping among different ones of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters; and an ultrasound receiver posited remote from each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters and connected to the metal structure so that when operating the ultrasound receiver receives modulated and transmitted ultrasound communication propagating as Lamb waves along the metal structure from each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters, the receiver being positioned at a distance from each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters based on a predetermined communication link budget, having a channel equalizer to reduce the effects of signal multipath, and having a decoder to decode the modulated ultrasound communication received from each of the plurality of wireless ultrasound transmitters. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification