Laboratory Assessment of Commercially Available Ultrasonic Rangefinders

Abstract

The Auditory Protection and Performance Division at the United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory currently maps sound environments using a tape measure. The limitations of five different models of ultrasonic rangefinders were examined to gauge the viability of improving the process through the use of these rangefinders. The performance at different angles of incidence (0 to 40 degrees) at 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 meters was investigated in locations with differing acoustical characteristics. Results from these tests suggested low accuracy performance with only 2.33 percent of the tests aligning with the actual distance. 86.67 percent of the tests exhibited significant differences in readings when examining the effect of angle of incidence. 100 percent of the tests exhibited significant differences with changes in location when examining the effect of room acoustics. These results suggest commercially available ultrasonic rangefinders are not an improvement, but there are a few limitations in the procedure that prevent this conclusion from being definitive.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2015
Accession Number
AD1023784

Entities

People

  • Efrem Reeves
  • Michael Chen

Organizations

  • United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Acoustic Absorption
  • Acoustic Measurement
  • Acoustics
  • Acquisition
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Anechoic Chambers
  • Angle Of Incidence
  • Architectural Acoustics
  • Chambers
  • Data Acquisition
  • Data Transmission
  • Governments
  • Measurement
  • Range Finders
  • Standards
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.