Abstract
The aim of this paper is to report the design of a low-cost plastic optical fiber (POF) pressure sensor, embedded in a mattress. We report the design of a multipoint sensor, a cheap alternative to the most common fiber sensors. The sensor is implemented using Arduino board, standard LEDs for optical communication in POF (λ = 645 nm) and a silicon light sensor. The Super ESKA® plastic fibers were used to implement the fiber intensity sensor, arranged in a 4 × 4 matrix. During the breathing cycles, the force transmitted from the lungs to the thorax is in the order of tens of Newtons, and the respiration rate is of one breath every 2–5 s (0.2–0.5 Hz). The sensor has a resolution of force applied on a single point of 2.2–4.5%/N on the normalized voltage output, and a bandwidth of 10 Hz, it is then suitable to monitor the respiration movements. Another issue to be addressed is the presence of hysteresis over load cycles. The sensor was loaded cyclically to estimate the drift of the system, and the hysteresis was found to be negligible.
Highlights
The development of optical fiber sensors started during the 1970s; since these years, the research was mostly focused on glass optical fibers
Plastic optical fiber applications are growing in wearable sensors field, since their mechanical properties make them completely embeddable in textile; some studies proved that they can be processed in high volume production, manufactured and integrated as either weft or warp in the weave [9]
Many research works present plastic optical fiber (POF) sensors based on intensity variations due to bending [10], or exploiting the macro-bends properties for sensing liquid-level [11], force [12]
Summary
The development of optical fiber sensors started during the 1970s; since these years, the research was mostly focused on glass optical fibers. Research leads to fiber sensors for strain and temperature, and the development of distributed sensors through the inscription of gratings or exploitation of nonlinear optical effects. These sensors have a wide range of applications from structure health monitoring [1] to wearable for medical purposes [2]. Plastic optical fiber applications are growing in wearable sensors field, since their mechanical properties make them completely embeddable in textile; some studies proved that they can be processed in high volume production, manufactured and integrated as either weft or warp in the weave [9]. Many research works present plastic optical fiber (POF) sensors based on intensity variations due to bending [10], or exploiting the macro-bends properties for sensing liquid-level [11], force [12]
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