Identifying Fabrics With a Variable Emission Airborne Spiking Sonar

A new spiking sonar based on the commercial 6500 module is presented in this work that, unlike the previous versions of this sensor, is capable to vary both the duration and the frequency of its emission. This feature is provided by a PIC18F452 device that also controls the module integrator to generate the sequence of spikes whose density is proportional to the amplitude of the echo. The sensor is used to generate rotational scans of a post covered with different fabrics at six different frequencies. Principal component analysis applied to the number of spikes obtained at different bearings and frequencies generates datasets that are clearly separated for each material, thus facilitating their latter identification by means of a probabilistic neural network.