Ultrasonic Echo Feature Transmission for Low-Bandwidth Obstacle Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge is to increase data compression in ultrasonic sensor systems for vehicles without compromising the reliability of obstacle recognition and reduce the bandwidth requirements for transmitting data to a computer system, while maintaining the integrity of the data transmission for safety-critical information.
Innovation Solution
A method is employed to extract predetermined signal profile characteristics from echo signals, identify objects based on these characteristics, and transmit only the identifiers and object parameters, rather than the entire echo signal, allowing for data reconstruction in the computer system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the entire echo signal is transmitted to the computer system for obstacle recognition, then the reliability of obstacle recognition is improved, but the data transmission bandwidth requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential characteristics from the complete echo signal for transmission. Specifically, it identifies and transmits only relevant signal portions containing obstacle information, while discarding redundant data. This extraction approach maintains obstacle recognition reliability by preserving critical features while significantly reducing the data quantity that needs to be transmitted over the bandwidth-limited vehicle data bus.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a compressed representation or copy of the echo signal that contains only the necessary information for obstacle recognition. Instead of transmitting the full-resolution echo signal, the system generates a simplified copy with extracted features and characteristics that are sufficient for the computer system to perform accurate obstacle detection and classification, thereby reducing bandwidth requirements.
2Productivity
If data compression is applied to reduce bandwidth requirements, then the data transmission efficiency is improved, but the information content and reliability of obstacle recognition may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different processing quality levels to different portions of the echo signal. Instead of uniformly compressing the entire signal, the system identifies specific local regions containing obstacle-related information and preserves them with high fidelity, while applying more aggressive compression or discarding redundant portions. This local quality approach ensures that critical information is retained while improving overall transmission efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the echo signal from its original time-domain representation into a different parameter space where only the most relevant features are retained for transmission. By changing the representation parameters (e.g., extracting temporal characteristics, frequency features, or envelope properties), the system reduces information content while maintaining the essential parameters needed for obstacle recognition, thus improving compression efficiency without significant information loss.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for transmitting data from an ultrasonic sensor to a computer system includes forming a feature vector signal from an electric reception signal; recognizing signal objects in the reception signal and classifying the signal objects according to predetermined signal object classes. At least one object parameter allocated to the signal object and one symbol for the signal object class are allocated to each signal object, or for each signal object, at least one signal object parameter and a symbol object are determined. The method further includes transmitting the symbol and the at least one signal object parameter to the computer system as data of a recognized signal object, wherein the transmission of the at least one symbol of the recognized signal object class includes a transmission of a signal object class of a signal object including a predefined temporal sequence of other signal objects.