Influence of Two-Plane Position and Stress on Intensity-Variation-Based Sensors: Towards Shape Sensing in Polymer Optical Fibers

Shape reconstruction is growing as an important real-time monitoring strategy for applications that require rigorous control. Polymer optical fiber sensors (POF) have mechanical properties that allow the measurement of large curvatures, making them appropriate for shape sensing. They are also lightweight, compact and chemically stable, meaning they are easy to install and safer in risky environments. This paper presents a sensor system to detect angles in multiple planes using a POF-intensity-variation-based sensor and a procedure to detect the angular position in different planes. Simulations are performed to demonstrate the correlation between the sensor’s mechanical bending response and their optical response. Cyclic flexion experiments are performed at three test frequencies to obtain the sensitivities and the calibration curves of the sensor at different angular positions of the lateral section. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis is tested as a method to estimate angular velocities using POF sensors. The experimental results show that the prototype had high repeatability since its sensitivity was similar using different test frequencies at the same lateral section position. The proposed approach proved itself feasible considering that all linear calibration curves presented a coefficient of determination (R2) higher than 0.9