AbstractThe flexibility of robots can be considerably increased by having sensors that can detect the location and orientation of the components that are being manipulated by the robots. Vision systems have been widely applied to this problem, but there has been very little reported work on the use of ultrasonic sensors. This article reports the use of novel ultrasonic sensors that have been manufactured in‐house to measure the range and bearing of a target and guide the robot in a pick and place operation. The configuration of the transducer is described as well as the signal processing method employed. Experimental results are given and future developments and applications of the system are described. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.