Ground material distinction method using reflection intensities obtained by ultrasonic sensor

In this research, we propose a method to distinguish different ground materials using the reflection intensities of the waves obtained by ultrasonic sensor. In previous research, the information obtained by ultrasonic sensor is only used for checking the existence of an object, and/or measuring the distance from an existent object. To go a step further, applying the information obtained by ultrasonic sensor, we designed a method to distinguish different ground materials according to different reflection intensities. Based on the method, a group of experiments have been implemented for distinguishing seven different ground materials in this research. According to the results of the experiments, it can be stated that different ground materials can be classified according to the particular reflection intensities. Furthermore, we can also use the particular reflection intensities for recognizing the roughness of different grounds in order to alert in dangerous situations.