Robotic Arm for Automatic Sound Intensity Measurements

The characterization of the noise emitted by positive displacement machines serves as an important metric for the design of positive displacement machines and their corresponding systems. One method of characterizing the noise produced by positive displacement machines utilizes the two microphone-intensity probes at various locations surrounding the unit to approximate the total sound power generated by the machine in question. This paper proposes a method of utilizing a robotic arm to perform automatic sound intensity measurements (ASIM). This paper will explain the various theoretical motivations and justifications for the basic design concept as well as the specific implementation. All the necessary theoretical considerations and technical difficulties were accounted for in the successful design and manufacturing of an ASIM robot. To highlight the usefulness of the automatic measurement procedure, three case studies was performed to evaluate the robotic ASIM’s ability to measure sound power. A total of 1086 measurement locations were taken in order for each grid study to quantify the convergence of the field non-uniformity.