New Acoustic Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (NAMES)

Completed

Nuclear Fission and Fusion(Nuclear Fission, Nuclear supporting technologies)
Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Other oil and gas)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor J Rees
Science Programmes Director
British Geological Survey (BGS) - NERC

Standard

EPSRC

01 April 2010

31 March 2012

24 months

£1

No relevance to Underpinning Sectors

East Midlands

Cross-Discipline Interface

Professor J Rees, Science Programmes Director, British Geological Survey (BGS) - NERC

Dr DA Gunn, Spatial Geoscience Technologies, British Geological Survey (BGS) - NERC

The BT Biologically Inspired Acoustic Systems (BIAS) project developed ultrasonic sensors and signal-processing techniques that will have the potential to revolutionise the guidance/navigation of autonomous robotic vehicles and make a step-change in non-destructive testing, materials characterisation - capabilities that will have widespread applications across industry. The NAMES project will explore and develop applications of these technologies in key industrial sectors - oil & gas, energy supply, environmental characterisation, transportation and security - to develop options for business models and optimise utilization by industrial sponsors.Major BIAS technological advances have been made in key areas that enable new acoustic systems to embrace bio-inspired technologies. These include acoustic transducer and control systems capable of generating very wideband, multi-frequency chirp signals that form the basis of high resolution phase-difference and spectral techniques underpinning new developments in distance ranging, localisation and target recognition. Miniaturised systems incorporating lightweight, wideband electrostatic transducers, data capture and wireless telemetry provide the basis for robot mounted acoustic scanning or imaging technology for non-destructive evaluation. Newly developed binaural sensing methods and models provide the basis for cost effective imaging in cluttered environments. Spectral Correlation and Transformation models incorporating very high (inter-bin) frequency-resolution will form the basis of imaging techniques to discriminate object size, aspect and shape. Novel signals and processing enabling multi-frequency phase-difference measurements can achieve spatial resolutions of up to 1/50th of the signal wavelength. The development systems to make these measurements in real-time will provide the basis of fundamental distance-ranging technology that will bring about a state of the art change in navigation and localisation. This will be the technology that underpins the development of autonomous vehicle fleets equipped with the high-precision positionining capabilities required for high-resolution materials or environmental characterisation.On the basis of these advances, the main technical objectives of NAMES are to develop applications in two main areas: 1) Guidance and navigation of autonomous vehicles and remote sensor agents (RSAs) - applied to both surface and sub-surface vehicle navigation, where the concept is to employ a group of vehicles, capable of operating in an intelligent and co-ordinated manner. In this case a subsidiary goal will be to improve navigation and environmental awareness, using techniques inspired by creatures such as bats and dolphins. 2) Characterisation and evaluation of heterogeneous materials and structures - in relation to resolution improvement, such that lower frequency signals can be used to interrogate hitherto extremely difficult materials, such as certain composites,austenitic steels, building materials (such as concrete), rocks, sediments and sludges. The main business objective of NAMES is to detail, prioritise and develop potential exploitation routes for its technologies through business development in the Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and physical properties characterisation sectors.NAMES will also work closely with Industrial sponsors and an Industry Advisory Group who will review the technological developments and potential application in various industry sectors. Two technical sub-projects will develop demonstrator systems that generate improved positioning and imaging (characterisation) technologies (hardware/software). A Business Development sub-project will focus upon the translation of successful technologies. This will be achieved by working closely with the NAMES industrial sponsors and with the Industry advisory panel to explore market potential and the most appropriate commercialisation models

14/11/11