A dual-fibre single-plane angle-sensing tape that utilizes optical Fibre Segment Interferometry and Range- Resolved Interferometry (RRI) for angle sensing is presented. The sensing tape facilitates the multiplexing of an array of angle sensors along its length and can be retrofitted into small robots and construction equipment. We demonstrate its application on three non-rotational joints of a small five-axis robot, describing the design, construction, measurement principle, and presenting measurement results. Preliminary data shows that the angles measured by the sensing tape exhibited agreement within a range of ±0.005° with the manufacturer-installed angle encoder of the robot.
In this paper we report the application of a laser speckle odometer to a mobile industrial robot in a typical factory floor environment. The suitability of typical floor surfaces and features is assessed in terms of the ability to form speckle patterns with sufficient signal to noise for correlation-based processing. All tested surfaces including concrete, rubber tile, dried paint and oil stains, and hazard tapes were found to be suitable. A comparison of the velocimetry sensor output to the industrial robot’s internal SLAM and wheel encoder data is presented with good agreement of < 0.3mm/s at tested speeds of up to 250mm/s. Finally, a comparison of speckle odometry to the robot’s internal SLAM based navigation will be presented using a laser tracker to provide ground-truth measurement data. Both techniques were found to perform similarly, with errors of up to 80mm when traversing a 16m square path of 4m sides. The laser speckle odometry was however found to perform significantly better over the initial sides of the path with a maximum error of < 10mm in comparison to < 47mm for the robot’s internal odometry.
This paper reports on the development of an end-effector mounted, multi degree-of-freedom positioning sensor capable of measuring the (x,y,z) movements relative to an object. The instrument termed wPOS (workpiece Positioning Sensor), combines two complimentary non-contact optical techniques; laser speckle correlation (LSC) and Range-Resolved Interferometry (RRI). Laser speckle correlation is used to measure the in-plane position (x,y) relative to a reference point, while the RRI system provides an out-of-plane (z) absolute range measurement and correction of the in-plane LSC measurement for varying working distance. The concept and operating principles of the instrument is described along with details of the prototype sensor implementation and exemplar results showing accuracies of <30μm after 0.75m lateral travel and repeatability between measurements of ~7 μm.
A non-contact optical technique employing dual-wavelength laser speckle is investigated for absolute angle measurement. The approach uses the separation of the speckle patterns formed by two closely spaced illumination wavelengths to determine the angle of a surface. Autocorrelation is performed on a single exposure containing both speckle patterns to find their relative displacement, which is directly related to the absolute surface angle. This absolute angle determination offers an advantage over previous techniques using laser speckle that require a reference image. The underlying theory linking the speckle pattern displacement and the surface angle is presented, along with a proof-of-concept sensor. Experimental results from the sensor confirm the validity of the theory, with measurements demonstrating a mean difference from applied angles of 0.136°.
A novel dual beam Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) system is presented for microfluidics applications. The dual sensing-light-sheet approach presented here achieves high velocity flow measurement because the rapid re-imaging by the second sensing-light-sheet allows for particle tracking between each image-frame of the pair. We have demonstrated measurements of microchannel flow using 10 μm particles in a 700 μm deep channel with peak velocities of approximately 0.28 metres-per-second (m/s), approximately two orders of magnitude higher than previously reported OCT systems operating at a few millimeters-per-second.
A non-contact speckle correlation sensor for the measurement of robotic tool speed is presented for use in robotic manufacturing and is capable of measuring the in-plane relative velocities between a robot end-effector and the workpiece or other surface. The sensor performance was assessed in the laboratory with the sensor accuracies found to be better than 0:01 mm/s over a 70 mm/s velocity range. Finally an example of the sensors application to robotic manufacturing is presented where the sensor was applied to tool speed measurement for path planning in the wire and arc additive manufacturing process using a KUKA KR150 L110/2 industrial robot.
This paper reports some initial investigations into the application of feature tracking algorithms as an alternative data processing method for speckle correlation sensors capable of determining both the speckle pattern translation and rotation. The accuracy of translation measurements using the feature tracking approach was found to be similar to that of correlation based processing with accuracies of < 0.04 pixels. Rotation measurement accuracies of< 0.05° are found to be achievable over angle range ±20°, limited by the failure to match speckles at larger rotation angles.
A range-resolved interferometric signal processing technique using sinusoidal optical frequency modulation is applied to fibre segment interferometry. Here, six optical fibre segments of gauge length 12.5 cm are used as interferometric strain sensors and are formed between seven weak, broadband fibre Bragg gratings, acting as in-fibre partial reflectors. In a very simple and cost-effective optical setup using injection current modulation of a laser diode source, interferometric measurement of acoustic wave propagation in a metal rod is used to demonstrate the capabilities of the technique.
This paper describes an extended theory of the displacement of the objective speckle pattern resulting from displacement and/or deformation of a coherently illuminated diffuse object where the influence of the surface shape is included via the linear surface gradients. An experimental system capable of measuring the translational scaling factors, the ratios of speckle shift to object translations, to an accuracy of ± 0.02 and a repeatability of approximately ± 0.008 is described which was used to experimentally measure the speckle shift for a range of detector positions and surface gradients. The original expressions developed by Yamaguchi1 and the new extended expressions2 are then compared with experimental results for measurements on zero surface gradients, i.e. the mean surface lying in the x-y plane. The divergence of Yamaguchi’s expressions from experimental results for off-axis detector positions that was first observed by Světlík3 was confirmed, and the new expressions shown to successfully predict translational scaling factors for off-axis positions. The new expressions are then compared to the experimental results for a range of surface gradient magnitudes and directions, as well as detector positions both on and off-axis, and shown to successfully predict the observed speckle shift.
A novel range-resolved interferometric signal processing technique that uses sinusoidal optical frequency modulation is applied to multi-surface vibrometry, demonstrating simultaneous optical measurements of vibrations on two surfaces using a single, collimated laser beam, with a minimum permissible distance of 3.5 cm between surfaces. The current system, using a cost-effective laser diode and a fibre-coupled, downlead insensitive setup, allows an interferometric fringe rate of up to 180 kHz to be resolved with typical displacement noise levels of 8 pm Hz-0.5. In this paper, the system is applied to vibrometry measurements of a table-top cryostat, with concurrent measurements of the optical widow and the sample holder inside. This allows the separation of common-mode vibrations of the whole cryostat from differential vibrations between the window and the sample holder.
A novel optical signal processing scheme for fibre sensors is proposed, which combines interferometric phase
measurements with range multiplexing. The scheme is based on single-sideband signal processing and uses continuous-wave
pseudo-random range encoding. The potential of the technique for cost-effective dynamic quasi-distributed strain
sensing is explored by applying it to an array of fibre segments. In its current implementation dynamic strains in
segments of 3.4 m gauge lengths can be measured with a resolution well below microstrains at a bandwidth of 100 kHz.
Three component planar flow-field measurements are made using imaging fibre bundles to port different views of the
measurement plane, defined by a laser light sheet, to a single imaging head. The Doppler frequency shifts of light
scattered by particles entrained in the flow are transduced to intensity variations using a Mach-Zehnder interferometric
filter. The free spectral range of the filter can be selected by adjusting the optical path difference of the interferometer.
This allows the velocity measurement range, sensitivity and resolution to be varied. Any laser wavelength may be used.
A phase locking system has been designed to stabilise the interferometric filter.
The work presented here describes a method that allows three component velocity measurements to be made, quickly and non-intrusively, across a plane in a flow defined by a laser light sheet. The method, two frequency planar Doppler Velocimetry (2ν-PDV) is a modification of the Planar Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) technique, using only a single CCD camera, and sequential illumination of the flow using two frequencies, separated by about 700MHz. One illumination frequency lies on an absorption line of gaseous iodine, and the other just off the absorption line. The beams sequentially illuminate a plane within a seeded flow and Doppler-shifted scattered light passes through an iodine vapour cell onto the camera. The beam at a frequency off the absorption line is not affected by passage through the cell, and provides a reference image. The other beam encodes the velocity information as a variation in transmission dependent upon the Doppler shift. Use of a single camera ensures registration of the reference and signal images, which is the major problem in any spilt image system such as a two-camera imaging head, and cost efficiency is improved by the simplification of the system. A 2ν-PDV system was constructed using a continuous-wave Argon ion laser and acousto-optic modulators to produce two frequencies of illuminating laser light. This was combined with multiple imaging fibre bundles, to port three different views of the measurement plane to a CCD camera, allowing the measurement of three velocity components.
3D planar flow-field measurements are made using multiple imaging fibre bundles to port different views of the measurement plane, defined by a laser light sheet, to a CCD camera. The Doppler frequency shifts of particles entrained in the flow are transduced to intensity using an iodine absorption cell. Only a single CCD camera is used eliminating the pixel matching problem. Two optical frequencies generated from the same source are used sequentially to provide a reference and signal image.
A Planar Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) illumination system has been designed which is able to generate two beams, separated in frequency by about 600 MHz. This allows a common-path imaging head to be constructed, using a single imaging camera instead of the usual camera pair. Both illumination beams can be derived from a single laser, using acousto-optic modulators to effect the frequency shifts.
One illumination frequency lies on an absorption line of gaseous iodine, and the other just off the absorption line. The beams sequentially illuminate a plane within a seeded flow and Doppler-shifted scattered light passes through an iodine vapor cell onto the camera. The beam that lies at an optical frequency away from the absorption line is not affected by passage through the cell, and provides a reference image. The other beam, the frequency of which coincides with an absorption line, encodes the velocity information as a variation in transmission dependent upon the Doppler shift. Images of the flow under both illumination frequencies are formed on the same camera, ensuring registration of the reference and signal images. This removes a major problem of a two-camera imaging head, and cost efficiency is also improved by the simplification of the system. The dual illumination technique has been shown to operate successfully with a spinning disc as a test object. The benefits of combining the dual illumination system with a three-component, fiber-linked imaging head developed at Cranfield will be discussed.
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