2007 4th International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE 2007)

IJu J

Low Cost Ultrasonic Anemometer

Miguel Perez del Valle', Jose Antonio Urbano Castelan" 2
Yasuhiro Matsumoto', Rau'l Cortes Mateos 2

'Departmento de Ingenieria Electrica, CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico D.F., Mexico

2Seccion de Estudios de Postgrado de ESIME Zacatenco, Mexico D.F., Mexico
Phone 50-61-37-78 E-mail: miguelpdvggmail.com

Abstract Low-cost ultrasonic transducers have been
employed for wind speed and direction measurements. The
system logic was designed based on Freescale's HCS12
microcontroller which delivers data to a personal computer. A
LabVIEW virtual instrument software has been used for final
data display and logging.
Keywords Wind speed, wind direction, ultrasonic waves,
ultrasonic sensors, HCS12 Microcontroller, LabVIEW.
measured on both paths and their directions. In this case, the
influence of the temperature depends on sound speed and
the measurement result could be eliminated by subtracting
the reciprocals of the measured propagation times [4]. By
the combination of two measuring paths which are at right
angles to each other, one obtains the measurement results of
the sum and the angle of the wind velocity vector in the
form of rectangular components.

After the rectangular velocity components have been

I. INTRODUCTION
In last 20 years, wind generation systems have been
quickly growing as one of the most successful energy
resources. Wind energy is a renewable and environment
friendly alternative energy source. Spain has been one of the
most interested countries in developing this technology. For
instance, in 1993 only 52MW of wind energy capacity was
operating. Ten years later, this quantity increased to
6,420MW, which spread across most of the country's
regions, and supplied about 500 of nation's electricity [1].
Despite Mexico is considered as one of the more generous
natural resource nations, where a few technological
development and applications have been made in wind
energy features [2]. Regarding this concern, new concepts
have been applied on wind turbine design, where wind
speed and direction measurements are fundamental.
measured over the measurement path, they are then
transformed by the microprocessor of the anemometer into
rectangular coordinates and output as sum and angle of wind
velocity.
B. Anemometer architecture
The Anemometer is constructed by an array of four
ultrasonic sensors placed each one in a cardinal point, each
pair (North-South and East-West) are facing each other with
a 37cm distance. In consequence this instrument is able to
measure only on a two dimensional plane [5].
Due to the anemometer's short measurement intervals, the
instrument is ideal for the inertia free measurement of gusts
and peak wind speed values.

II. METHODOLOGY The measurement process goes as it follows:

North transducer sends an ultrasonic signal to South
A. Measurement Principle sensor and when the signal arrives time is calculated, giving
the Time of Flight (ToF). A diagram shows this process in
The speed of sound propagation in calm-air is Fig. 1.
superposed by the velocity components of an air-flow in
wind direction. A wind velocity component in the direction SW
of the propagation of the sound supports the speed of North Sensor South Sensor
propagation, thus leading to an increase of speed. A wind (Transmitter) (Receiver)
velocity component opposite to the direction of propagation, Acoustic Signal
on the contrary, leads to a reduction of the speed of Ss
propagation. The speed of propagation resulting from the
superposition leads to different propagation times of the 1- '
sound at different wind velocities and directions over a fixed d
measurement path. Fig. 1: Time of Flight with North sensor as Transmitter.

As the speed of sound highly depends on air

temperature [3], the propagation time of the sound is The Time of Flight on this case is given by:

213 IEEE Catalog Number: 07EX1762C

1-4244-1 166-1/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE. ISBN: 1-4244-1166-1
Library of Congress: 2007923398
 2007 4th International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE 2007)

IJu J

(1) perpendicular wind speed vectors (Cv and CH, vertical

ToEN-Ss d component and horizontal component) as showed on Fig. 3.
NSSs + SW
Where. N
ToFNS= Time of flight for north-south experiment (s)
Ss = Sound speed (m/s)
Sw = Wind velocity (m/s)
d = Distance between the sensors in (m)
E w
d (2)
Ss + Sw =
ToFNS

In next case where south sensor is now the transmitter

and north sensor is the receiver, Time of flight could be
obtained as shown in Fig.2.
sw 10
S
North Sensor South Sensor
(Receiver) (Transmitter)
Fig. 3: Horizontal and Vertical wind vectors.
Acoustic Signal
Ss Equations (7) and (8) are applied to vectors to obtain
Wind speed (Sw) magnitude and direction (SD).
-

d
Fig. 2: Time of Flight with South Sensor as Transmitter.
SW = CV +CH (7)
d
Ss - Sw = - (3) (8)
ToFsN SD = tan-l CV

The sign in (3) changed to negative because wind flows

in the opposite direction. III. DEVELOPMENT

Then (2) and (3) are subtracted yielding: Using a HCS12 microcontroller is possible to drive the
d d Anemometer logic: sensor selection (multiplexing logic),
2Sw = ~~- (4) transmitter and receiver. Obtained wind speed
ToFNs ToFSN
measurements are processed, and then converted according
Then: to user's need into m/s, mph, Km/s or knots.
SW= dKI O_ 1 (5) Fig. 4 is a block diagram from electronic circuitry used
2 ToFNs ToFsN)
for Anemometer.
Equation (5) has an advantage in comparison to a single
Time of Flight measurement, because it lacks of the Speed
of sound dependency. By (5) there is no need to calculate
the instantaneous speed of sound of the current wind Si1 (N)

measurement. The Speed of Sound is given by (6). Where B

equals to the volumetric elasticity module and po equals to S2 (S)

the air density. Temperature brings a variation on Air

(E)
Density causing a final change on Sound Speed [6] [7].
S3

S4 OM)

Ss=B (6)
Po

The process followed on the North-South sensors is

repeated on East-West sensors to obtain a pair of
Fig. 4: Electronic circuitry block diagram.

214 IEEE Catalog Number: 07EX1762C

1-4244-1 166-1/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE. ISBN: 1-4244-1166-1
Library of Congress: 2007923398
 2007 4th International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE 2007)

IJu J

Through two multiplexers (inbound and outbound), With the aid of a TDS 3054B Tektronix DPO
Microcontroller is capable of choose which pair of sensors Oscilloscope, the signals from ultrasonic sensors were
and transmitter/receiver direction is going to work with. plotted to obtain the graphic in the Fig. 6.
Next step consists in enabling the transmitting logic; this is
achieved sending a signal from an oscillator tuned to 40
KHz, which is the resonating frequency from the bought
commercial transducer.
A lapse should be held to avoid the electrical noise
caused by the transmission signal [8]. Afterwards the
reception logic is enabled to obtain the logical pulse when
signal is detected in the ultrasonic receiver. The measured
time is the required ToF. The entire process is repeated for a
determined number of times to obtain an average ToF. Then
the transmission/reception scheme is reversed to obtain the
opposite ToF. All previous steps are repeated with the
remaining pair of sensors to obtain two wind speed vectors.
The microcontroller applies (7) and (8) to the horizontal
and vertical wind speed vectors to obtain the resultant wind
speed magnitude and direction.
The data acquired by the microcontroller is sent to a
personal computer using a serial interface RS-232 or RS- Fig. 6: Ultrasonic Sensor signals.
485 selectable via user's configuration menu. Then the data
is logged and plotted by a Virtual Instrument made with In Fig. 6 signals are tagged with a number. 1 shows the
National Instrument's software LabVIEW. oscillator enable signal sent by the microcontroller, while 2
shows the signal fed to the ultrasonic transmitter. 3
The use of that specific software will simplify the data represents the signal in the ultrasonic receiver and 4 shows
comparison between wind speed and power generated by the the response of the receiving logic. The delay time between
new aerogenerator model. the rising of signal 1 and the first spike of signal 4 is the
searched Time of Flight (ToF).
IV. TESTS AND IMPROVEMENTS
The average of the readings calculated are sent to a
Performance testing and calibration of Instrument were Personal Computer and displayed on the LabVIEW interface
done with a standardized wind speed given by a normalized as shown on Fig. 7.
wind tunnel located in Aeronautical Engineering from
ESIME Ticomain. Fig. 5 shows an anemometer prototype
inside the wind tunnel.

Fig. 7: Results showed in LabVIEW Virtual Instrument.

Fig. 5: Sonic Anemometer prototype in Wind Tunnel test.

215 IEEE Catalog Number: 07EX1762C

1-4244-1 166-1/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE. ISBN: 1-4244-1166-1
Library of Congress: 2007923398
 2007 4th International Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering (ICEEE 2007)

IJu J

V. RESULTS The microcontroller based architecture would make

A low cost ultrasonic anemometer design was obtained
[9]. The instrument is capable of measure in a scale of 0-50
m/s with a resolution of 0.1 m/s. Anemometer precision is
+3.5 m/s at 20 mn/s in a low precision mode and
approximately 1 rn/s at 20 rn/s in a high precision mode.
The anemometer could be configured through the built-
on user interface on the circuit or via serial command line.
All data could be displayed in a meteorological standardized
interface and logged by the Virtual Instrument in software
configurable lapses (instantaneous, daily, monthly or even
yearly readings).
The data could be accessed worldwide via Internet using
a data-logging server. In such way, possibilities with data
communications are nearly endless.
The Fig. 8 shows the final Ultrasonic Anemometer model.
easier the continuous improvement of this project. Even
sensors could be changed with other type of ultrasonic
transducers with only changes on the anemometer's
Firmware.
The data interface with a personal computer brings
to the project a lot of flexibility. The wind speed
measurements could be consulted via serial interface,
USB, a wireless adapter or even remotely using
Internet.
It should be noted that the array of four sensors
used in this project has a few blind spots caused by its
geometrical characteristics. Each blind spot is directly
behind the transducer's body, four spots in total. Maybe
other sensor array geometry will decrease the number of
blind spots.
VII AKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is dedicated to: Ing. Fausto Humberto Rodriguez

from Ingenieria Aeronautica ESIME Ticoman for
facilitating their Wind Tunnel for our experiments. IPN's
CGPI (Coordinacion General de Proyectos de Investigacion)
research program that supported financially this project.
Electronics Engineering Students: Carlos Lara Carmona and
Pedro Bravo Callejas and Isaura Perez del Valle for
proofreading this document.

REFERENCES

Fig. 8: Final Sonic Anemometer model.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The results showed that a low cost ultrasonic
anemometer design was accomplished with similar
specifications versus their commercial counterparts [9].
The designed instrument has an approximate cost of
$150 dollars compared with the commercial average of
$2,000 dollars.
This anemometer is a fundamental part on the
development of the new wind turbine concept.
Hopefully, this work will encourage future researches in
renewable energies, by simplifying the study of wind
interaction with modern wind turbines. The use of such
energies could drastically reduce the effects of climate
change, greenhouse effect and finite hydrocarbon
resources [10].
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[8] Nelson M. Blachman, "Noise and its effects on
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[9] Nesvijski E. G., "On Design of Ultrasonic Transducers and
Accuracy of Velocity Measurements "The NDT Database &
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[10] Danish Wind Industry Association "Wind Energy".
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour.htm

216 IEEE Catalog Number: 07EX1762C

1-4244-1 166-1/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE. ISBN: 1-4244-1166-1
Library of Congress: 2007923398