SURFACE MAPPING BY VIRTUAL ARRAY PROCESSING VIA SEPARATE TRANSMISSIONS

摘要

A system for measuring the height of bin contents includes transmitters for transmitting pulses of wave energy towards the upper surface of the contents and receivers for receiving echoes of the pulses and producing corresponding signals. The transmitters and receivers are distributed aerially above the contents. The system also includes a processing apparatus, for using the received signals to map the upper surface, that includes correlators that correlate pulse waveforms with the signals, and a beamformer. In one embodiment, the beamformer computes, from the signals considered as corresponding to echoes, of pulses from fewer synthetic transmitters, received at a synthetic receiver array, respective directions of arrival of the signals. In another embodiment, the beamformer computes respective directions of transmission and arrival of the signals, and the processing apparatus also includes a processor that selects, according to the computed transmission and arrival directions, which signals to use for the mapping.

主权项

1. A system for measuring a height of a content of a bin, comprising:
(a) a plurality of transmitters for transmitting respective pulses of wave energy towards an upper surface of the content; and (b) a plurality of receivers for receiving an echo of each said pulse, each said receiver producing a respective signal in response to said echo;wherein said transmitters and receivers are distributed aerially above the content, the system further comprising
(c) a processing apparatus, for jointly transforming said signals into a plurality of measured distances from said receivers to said upper surface, that includes:
(i) for each said receiver, a correlator for correlating a waveform of each said pulse with said respective signal, thereby producing a correlated signal, and(ii) a beamformer for computing, from said correlated signals considered as corresponding to echoes, of pulses transmitted by synthetic transmitters that are fewer in number than said plurality of transmitters, that are received by an array of synthetic receivers, a respective direction of arrival of each said correlated signal from said upper surface to said receiver of said correlated signal.