コウモリの周波数調整行動の工学的検証

―サーモホン搭載型自律走行車による混信回避戦略の検討―

抄録

Bats realize echolocation by simple ultrasonic sensing, which is composed of one transmitter and two receivers. We are studying the various echolocation behaviors of bats by a constructive approach using autonomous vehicles equipped with broadband ultrasonic transmitters (thermophone) capable of emitting ultrasonic FM pulses that mimic bats and two receivers. Our previous behavioral studies suggested that bats flying in groups slightly change the terminal frequency (TF) of the FM pulses in order to avoid acoustic jamming caused by other individuals’ sounds.

In this study, we implemented this frequency adjustment behavior of bats as a jamming avoidance model in autonomous vehicles and conducted obstacle avoidance experiments with and without the jamming avoidance model in the acoustic interference environment. The results showed a significant improvement in collision avoidance performance, suggesting that the frequency adjustment behavior of bats could be a useful solution for practical acoustic jamming problems.