Biomimetic sonar: 3D-localization of multiple reflectors

This paper presents an advanced bio-inspired binaural sonar sensor capable of localizing multiple reflectors in 3D-space with a single measurement. The system makes use of spectral cues in the received echoes only. Two artificial pinnae act as complex direction-dependent spectral filters on the echoes returning from the insonified reflectors. A maximum likelihood estimator is used to select the best azimuth-elevation pair based on the calculated a posteriori probability for all target angles, given the measured target spectrum. Experimental results in which three targets are localized simultaneously are presented.