Increasing signal to noise ratio of acoustic echoes by a group of spaced apart acoustic transceiver arrays

• US 9,952,084 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2013
• Issued: 04/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rosemount Tank Radar AB (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: APM Automation Solutions Ltd. (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Zlotnick, Yossi, Bartov, Avishai
• Primary Examiner(s): Alsomiri, Isam A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Armstrong, Jonathan D
• Application Number:
  US14/050,387
• Publication Number:
  US 20150103630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,657 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 22/00 Methods or apparatus for measuring volume of fluids or fluent solid material, not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 23/2966 making use of acoustical resonance or standing waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 9/082 using echo cancellers echo cancellers per se H04B3/23

Abstract

A method and a system for evaluating a content of a bin, the method may include: transmitting by multiple acoustic transceiver arrays, a plurality of acoustics pulses in an at least partially overlapping manner towards an expected location of the content to generate an acoustic interference pattern that comprises multiple fringes; detecting by an acoustic transceiver array a first fringe of the acoustic interference pattern and providing a fringe detection signal; and processing the first fringe detection signal to assist in a provision of a first estimate related to the content. A distance between a pair of acoustic transceiver arrays is at least ten times a distance between transducers of a same acoustic transceiver array.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating a content of a bin, the method comprising:

transmitting by multiple acoustic transceiver arrays that are spaced apart from each other and have partially overlapping fields of views that form an overlap area on a surface of the content, a plurality of acoustics pulses in an at least a partially overlapping manner towards the overlap area to generate, at the overlap area, an acoustic interference pattern that comprises multiple fringes;

wherein each acoustic array of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays comprises transducers;

detecting by an acoustic transceiver array a first fringe of the acoustic interference pattern and providing a fringe detection signal; and

processing the first fringe detection signal to assist in a provision of a first estimate related to the content;

wherein a distance between a pair of acoustic transceiver arrays is at least ten times a distance between centers of the transducers of each acoustic transceiver array of the pair of acoustic transceiver arrays.

2. The method according to claim 1 comprising detecting by each one of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays fringes of the acoustic interference pattern to provide fringe detection signals and processing the fringe detection signals to provide a second estimate related to the content.

3. The method according to claim 1 comprising compensating for clock differences between a second clock of the second acoustic transceiver array and a master clock.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the compensating comprises:

receiving multiple master clock time stamps;

determining a compensated value of an acoustic transceiver array clock time stamp in response to values of the multiple master clock time stamps and timings of receiving of the multiple master clock time stamps; and

setting the acoustic transceiver array clock to the compensated value.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the compensating comprises calculating by each acoustic transceiver array a gap between a rate of the acoustic transceiver array clock and a rate of the master clock in response to the multiple master clock time stamps and in response to the timings of the receiving of the multiple master clock stamps.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein an upper surface of the content is expected to be located within a far field of each one of the acoustic transceiver arrays.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein each acoustic pulse has a shape of a lobe that is more than forty degrees wide.

8. The method according to claim 1 comprising switching, by the system that comprises the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays, to a partial transmission mode during which only a part of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays transmit acoustics pulses in an at least the partially overlapping manner towards the expected location of the content.

9. The method according to claim 8 comprising determining, by the system, to switch to the partial transmission mode if determining that a signal to noise ratio that can be obtained by transmitting acoustic pulses by only a part of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays exceeds a minimum signal to noise ratio.

20. The method according to claim 1 wherein the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays have optical axes that are oriented to each other.

10. A system comprising multiple acoustic transceiver arrays that are spaced apart from each other and have partially overlapping fields of views that form an overlap area on a surface of the content, the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays are arranged to transmit a plurality of acoustics pulses in an at least partially overlapping manner towards the overlap area to generate, at the overlap area, an acoustic interference pattern that comprises multiple fringes;

wherein at least one of the acoustic transceiver arrays of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays is arranged to detect a first fringe of the acoustic interference pattern and providing a fringe detection signal; and

process the first fringe detection signal to assist in a provision of a first estimate related to the content;

wherein each acoustic array of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays comprises transducers;

wherein a distance between a pair of acoustic transceiver arrays is at least ten times a distance between centers of the transducers of each acoustic transceiver array of the pair of acoustic transceiver arrays.

11. The system according to claim 10 wherein the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays are arranged to detect fringes of the acoustic interference pattern to provide fringe detection signals and to process the fringe detection signals to provide a second estimate related to the content.

12. The system according to claim 10 wherein each acoustic transceiver array is arranged to compensate for clock differences between a clock of the acoustic transceiver array and a master clock.

13. The system according to claim 10 wherein each acoustic transceiver array is arranged to determine a compensated value of an acoustic transceiver array clock time stamp in response to values of the multiple master clock time stamps and timings of receiving of the multiple master clock time stamps;

and set the acoustic transceiver array clock to the compensated value.

14. The system according to claim 13 wherein each acoustic transceiver array is arranged to calculate a gap between a rate of the master clock and a rate of the acoustic transceiver array clock in response to the multiple master clock time stamps and in response to the timings of the receiving of the multiple master clock stamps.

15. The system according to claim 10 wherein an upper surface of the content is expected to be located within a far field of each one of the acoustic transceiver arrays.

16. The system according to claim 10 wherein each acoustic pulse has a shape of a lobe that is more than forty degrees wide.

17. The system according to claim 10 wherein each acoustic transceiver array is arranged to switch, in response to a determination made by the system, to a partial transmission mode during which only a part of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays transmit acoustics pulses in an at least the partially overlapping manner towards the expected location of the content.

18. The system according to claim 17 wherein at least one acoustic transceiver array is arranged to determine to switch to the partial transmission mode if a signal to noise ratio that can be obtained by transmitting acoustic pulses by only a part of the multiple acoustic transceiver arrays exceeds a minimum signal to noise ratio.

19. The system according to claim 11 comprising a controller that is arranged to receive the first and second estimates related to the content and to provide an updated estimate related to the content.