3d-printed force sensitive structure using embedded long-period fiber grating

Abstract

In this work, we present a low-cost tactile sensor based on arc-induced long–period fiber grating (LPG) embedded in polylactic acid (PLA) by fused deposition modeling (FDM). The 3d printing process used to embed the LPG, offers easy customization, flexibility, fast prototyping, and low-cost fabrication. At the same time, optical fiber sensors such as fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and LPGs are compact, resistant, and immune to electromagnetic interference. Therefore, the easy fabrication and low cost of arc-induced LPGs coupled to the 3d printing advantages offer low-cost custom force sensing elements with all the advantages of optical fiber sensors. This way, the proposed tactile sensor is a lightweight, small-size, and cost-effective tactile sensing scheme that offers easy implementation and tailoring to specific applications. In this study, we fabricated, embedded, calibrated, and evaluated the proposed LPG sensor tactile sensor. We showed this approach provided high force sensitivity (11.723 nm.N−1) with high linearity (99.28%), sub-decimal measurement error, and no drift.