Abstract
An angular and displacement sensor that uses a polymer optical fiber and Moire patterns is demonstrated. Moire fringes are generated using two transparent superimposed planar gratings placed in front of an optical mirror. Moire patterns with periods ranging from 0.4 to 2 mm have been obtained in this way with 1mm-diameter plastic optical fibers for torsion angles ranging from 10° to 20° have been compared with theoretical calculations and a good agreement has been confirmed. Measuring the period length and the number of periods, both the relative angle between the gratings and the displacement of the fiber with respect to the mirror are obtained. With this technique very low angles can be measured with a very high resolution. The sensor principle has been successfully checked in the laboratory. Finally, the effect of employing different plastic fibers is also discussed. Besides, other possible applications of this measurement technique are presented and discussed.
Highlights
The simultaneous measurement of displacement and angle are topics of interest in a wide range of industrial applications
Moiré patterns formed by the overlapping of two identical transparent gratings were experimentally checked using plastic optical fibers (POFs) [10]
If the POF fiber is displaced in the x direction, this displacement can be measured by counting the number of Moiré fringes seen along that movement
Summary
The simultaneous measurement of displacement and angle are topics of interest in a wide range of industrial applications. Interferometric (Mach-Zehnder, Michelson or Fabry-Perot) [1,2,3,4], intensity [5], spectrum [6, 7], or encoded patterns [8], among others modulation techniques are intensively used to measure displacement with different dynamic and resolution ranges. Sensors using plastic optical fibers (POFs) are presented as a low cost alternative due to their inherent advantages: easy manipulation and simple optical connections, cheap optical sources, excellent flexibility, and low cost among others. These fibers will potentially provide very good technical performance/cost ratio for optical communications and sensing solutions. In this paper an angular and displacement sensor using polymer optical fiber and Moiré patterns is demonstrated.
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