Fast Processing of Optical Fringe Movement in Displacement Sensors Without Using an ADC

An interferometer based optical sensor for displacement measurement is reported. This method requires quite simple signal processing as well as least electronic components. Referring to this technique, two photodiodes spatially shifted by 90 degrees were used. The output of photodiodes was converted into rectangular signals which were extracted in LabVIEW using the data acquisition card without using an analog to digital converters （ADC）. We have also processed the signals in C＋＋ after acquiring via parallel port. A Michelson interferometer configuration was used to produce linear fringes for the detection of displacements. The displacement less than 100nm could be measured using this technique.

HIGH TEMPERATURE DISPLACEMENT SENSOR

A high temperature displacement sensor based on the principle of eddy-current is investigated. A new temperature compensation technique by using eddy-current effect is presented to satisfy the special requirement at high temperature up to 550℃. The experiment shows that the temperature compensation technique leads to good temperature stability for the sensors. The variation of the sensitivity as well as the temperature drift of the sensor with temperature compensation technique is only about 7.4% and 90-350 mV at 550 ℃ compared with that at room temperature, and that of the sensor without temperature compensation technique is about 31.2% and 2-3 V at 550 ℃ compared with that at room temperature. A new dynamic calibration method for the eddy-current displacement sensor is presented, which is very easy to be realized especially in high frequency and at high temperatures. The high temperature displacement sensors developed are successfully used at temperature up to 550 ℃ in a magnetic bearing system for more than 100 h.

MEASUREMENT OF 2-DIMENSIONAL DISPLACEMENT USING 2-D ZERO-REFERENCE MARKS

Several 2-D displacement sensing methods are reviewed. As to the crossdiffraction grating, there is no absolute zero-reference. In regards to the optical fiber method,the output signal is affected greatly by the quality of the reflecting surface and it is hard to gethigh resolution. Considering the concentric-circle gratings, the displacement can only be gainedwith complicated calculating of the experiment data. Compared with the advantages and limitations ofthe methods above, a novel 2-D zero-reference mark is especially proposed and demonstrated. Thiskind of mark has an absolute zero-reference when used in pair, and the experimental result is simpleto dispose. By superimposing a pair of specially coded 2-D marks, the correct alignment position ofthe two marks can be detected by the maximum output of the sharp intensity peak. And each slope ofthe peak is of good linearity which can be used to achieve high resolution in positioning andalignment in two dimensions. Design and fabrication of such 2-D zero-reference marks are introducedin detail. The experiment results are agreed with the theoretical ones.

Nonlinear correction of photoelectric displacement sensor based on least square support vector machine

A model of correcting the nonlinear error of photoelectric displacement sensor was established based on the least square support vector machine.The parameters of the correcting nonlinear model,such as penalty factor and kernel parameter,were optimized by chaos genetic algorithm.And the nonlinear correction of photoelectric displacement sensor based on least square support vector machine was applied.The application results reveal that error of photoelectric displacement sensor is less than 1.5%,which is rather satisfactory for nonlinear correction of photoelectric displacement sensor.

Non—touch Fiber—optic Reflective Displacement Sensor for Roller Wear

By accurately measuring the displacement between the roller surface and the optical fiber probe relative to a null position, we can test the roller wear. The whole testing method and system were introduced. Each part of the testing system was illustrated. And also a novel fiber-optic sensor with three probes in equal transverse space is adopted. Using this sensor, the effects of fluctuations in the light source, reflectivity changing of target surface and the intensity losses in the fiber lines are automatically compensated. This method offers such advantages as non-contact, no electromagnetic interference, simplicity, low cost, high sensitivity, good accuracy and stability.

Optical Fiber Displacement Sensor with Ultra-high Resolution

A low fineness fiber optic Fabry-Perot interferometric displacement sensor has been developed and tested.A 0.005 nm displacement resolution is obtained by using He-Ne laser with a high performance ,photodetectors with low noise ,low drift operational amplifiers,6-pole Butterworth filters and perfect digital signal processing circuits.

Application of slant lens fiber in reflective optical fiber displacement sensor

This paper introduces the application of a slant lens fiber in a reflective fiber optical displacement sensor, namely the receiving fiber use the slant lens fiber. Based on the characteristic formula expression of the intensity modulation of planar single fiber pair, a mathematic model of single fiber fair intensity modulation is established. After simulation experiment, the influence of fiber spacing, fiber core diameter and fiber numerical aperture on the modulation characteristics of the sensor is summarized.

Design of a Reflective Intensity Optical Fibre Bundle Displacement Sensor

Optical fibre sensor has the advantages of small size,light weight,anti⁃electromagnetic interference,and high measurement accuracy,which has important applications in research and industrial production.To design an optical fibre displacement sensor(OFBDS)with simple structure and high measurement accuracy,the unified model of the commonly used OFBDS structures was proposed and the feasibility of the intensity⁃modulation of multi⁃structural optical fibre bundles was analysed based on the arrangement characteristics of the fibre bundle end⁃face.The intensity⁃modulation characteristic of different fibre bundles was analysed,and the single coil coaxial fibre bundle was chosen as the fibre probe in this study.The sensor hardware system was designed.Lastly,the calibration experiment,temperature interference experiment,changes of measured plane surface area,and the dynamic experiment were conducted.Results showed that the sensor linear measurement range was about 3 mm,and the sensor system had excellent static and dynamic characteristics.

Development of a Seismometer-Type Absolute Displacement Sensor Aimed at Detecting Earthquake Waves with a Large Magnitude and Long Period

This paper proposes a novel seismometer-type absolute displacement sensor aimed at detecting earthquake waves with a large magnitude and long period. However, since the measuring range of the displacement sensor is higher than its natural frequency, it is difficult to detect low frequency vibrations below 1 Hz using a conventional a seismic-type displacement sensor. In order to provide an absolute displacement detection which is capable of lowering the natural frequency and enlarging the detectable amplitude without causing structural defects, the relative signals of displacement, velocity, and acceleration between a detected object and the auxiliary mass of the sensor are fed back into the sensor. In addition, phase lag compensation is inserted to adjust phase angles, which are of a frequency of 1 Hz. According to simulation results, a detection range from 0.1 Hz to 50 Hz is expected. It has been demonstrated that the developed sensor with a small size and light weight has a detection range of from 0.5 Hz to 50 Hz for absolute displacement and velocity. As an additional advantage, the measurement displacement amplitude has been expanded to about 20 dB. This sensor is available to use for the active control method. of flexible structures like high rise buildings using the LQ control

Optical feedback characteristics in a dual-frequency laser during laser cavity tuning

The optical feedback characteristics in a Zeeman-birefringence dual-frequency laser are studied during the laser cavity tuning in three different kinds of optical feedback conditions： （i） only //-light is fed back; （ii） only ⊥-light is fed back; （iii） both lights are fed back. A compact displacement sensor is designed using the experimental result that there is a nearly 90 degrees phase delay between the two lights＇ cosine optical feedback signals when both lights are fed back into the laser cavity. The priority order that the two lights＇ intensity curves appear can be used for direction discrimination. The resolution of the displacement sensor is at least 79 rim, and the sensor can discriminate the target＇s moving direction easily.

Study on Coaxiality Measurement System of Compound Gear Shaft Based on Non⁃contact Optic

Aiming at the shortcomings of traditional contact measurement methods such as low measurement efficiency,high cost and low accuracy,a non-contact optical measurement method based on the laser displacement sensor is proposed.According to the relevant regulations of the coaxiality error evaluation standard and the structural characteristics of the compound gear shaft,we have designed and built a set of supporting software system as well as a hardware test platform.In this paper,the distance difference threshold and scale threshold methods are used to eliminate outlier data.The least squares circle is selected to calculate the center of the circle and the minimum containment cylinder axis method is used as the reference axis of the composite gear shaft.Compensated by the standard step shaft calibration,the coaxiality error of the composite gear shaft can be measured to be within 0.01 mm in less than two minutes.The range value of the multi-section measurement test is 0.065 mm.The average coaxiality error is∅0.476 mm.

Calibration of laser beam direction based on monocular vision

In the laser displacement sensors measurement system,the laser beam direction is an important parameter.Particularly,the azimuth and pitch angles are the most important parameters to a laser beam.In this paper,based on monocular vision,a laser beam direction measurement method is proposed.First,place the charge coupled device(CCD)camera above the base plane,and adjust and fix the camera position so that the optical axis is nearly perpendicular to the base plane.The monocular vision localization model is established by using circular aperture calibration board.Then the laser beam generating device is placed and maintained on the base plane at fixed position.At the same time a special target block is placed on the base plane so that the laser beam can project to the special target and form a laser spot.The CCD camera placed above the base plane can acquire the laser spot and the image of the target block clearly,so the two-dimensional(2D)image coordinate of the centroid of the laser spot can be extracted by correlation algorithm.The target is moved at an equal distance along the laser beam direction,and the spots and target images of each moving under the current position are collected by the CCD camera.By using the relevant transformation formula and combining the intrinsic parameters of the target block,the2D coordinates of the gravity center of the spot are converted to the three-dimensional(3D)coordinate in the base plane.Because of the moving of the target,the3D coordinates of the gravity center of the laser spot at different positions are obtained,and these3D coordinates are synthesized into a space straight line to represent the laser beam to be measured.In the experiment,the target parameters are measured by high-precision instruments,and the calibration parameters of the camera are calibrated by a high-precision calibration board to establish the corresponding positioning model.The measurement accuracy is mainly guaranteed by the monocular vision positioning accuracy and the gravity center extraction accuracy.The experimental results show the maximum error of the angle between laser beams reaches to0.04°and the maximum error of beam pitch angle reaches to0.02°.

Portable nano probe for micro/nano mechanical scratching and measuring

A nano probe system which can measure precise contact force in mN scale was demonstrated. The nano probe micro parts or optical parts in nanometer range resolution and scratch was originally designed for on-machine measuring applications and one kind of contact type measuring probes was designed for miniaturized or microfactory system. It ideally should be of small size and able to measure surface topography in nanometer scale. A commercial capacitive displacement sensor was proposed. It was a new concept in nano probe systems which can measure the displacement of shaft driven by the variation of surface topography. The nano probe mainly consisted of three parts： a capacitive displacement sensor, a porous type air slide and a contact probe part with various tip radiuses. The porous type air slide assured the shaft slided smoothly with controllable normal force in mN scale and had high positioning accuracy. The probe part which was directly in contact with target surface, can be applied to micro/nanoscale scratching as well as the measurement of sample topography by a simple tip change.

Power Consumption Prediction for an Intelligent Air-Cushion Track Vehicle： Fuzzy Expert System

This paper describes the unique structure of an intelligent air-cushion system of a hybrid electrical air-cushion track vehicle working on swamp terrain. Fuzzy expert system （FES） is used in this study to control the swamp tracked vehicle＇s intelligent air cushion system while it operates in the swamp peat. The system will be effective to control the intelligent air-cushion system with total power consumption （PC）, cushion clearance height （CCH） and cushion pressure （CP）. Ultrasonic displacement sensor, pull-in solenoid electromagnetic switch, pressure sensor, micro controller and battery pH sensor will be incorporated with the FES to investigate experimentally the PC, CCH and CP. In this study, we provide illustration how FES might play an important role in the prediction of power consumption of the vehicle＇s intelligent air-cushion system. The mean relative error of actual and predicted values from the FES model on total power consumption is found as 10.63 %, which is found to be alomst equal to the acceptable limits of 10%. The goodness of fit of the prediction values from the FES model on PC is found as 0.97.

A novel wide-range precision instrument for measuring three-dimensional surface topography

We developed a measuring instrument that had wide range, high precision, small measuring touch force. The instrument for three-dimensional (3D) surface topography measurement was composed of a high precision displacement sensor based on the Michelson interference principle, a 3D platform based on vertical scanning, a measuring and control circuit, and an industrial control computer. It was a closed loop control system, which changed the traditional moving stylus scanning style into a moving platform scanning style. When the workpiece was measured, the lever of the displacement sensor returned to the balanced position in every sample interval according to the zero offset of the displacement sensor. The non-linear error caused by the rotation of the lever was, therefore, very small even if the measuring range was wide. The instrument can measure the roughness and the profile size of a curved surface.

Adaptive sampling for corrugated plate digitization using a laser displacement sensor

The surface quality of a corrugated plate directly determines the heat transfer property of the thermal power mechanical apparatus.Traditional detection methods are impractical for real-world production,being slow and destructive.In contrast,the point laser displacement sensor,employing the optical triangle method,emerges as a promising device for assessing parts with variable curvature and highly reflective surfaces.Despite its benefits,high-density sampling by an innate frequency introduces challenges such as data redundancy and a poor signal-to-noise ratio,potentially affecting the efficiency and precision of subsequent data processing.To address these challenges,adjustable frequency data sampling has been developed for this sensor,allowing adaptive sampling for corrugated plate digitization.The process begins with surface digitization to extract discrete points,which are transformed into intersection curves using the B-spline fitting technique.Subsequently,dominant points are identified,considering multigeometric constraints for curvature and arch height.Finally,the sampling signal is adjusted based on the distribution information of dominant points.Comparative results indicate that the proposed method effectively minimizes redundant sampling without compromising the accurate capture of essential geometric features.

Parameters optimization and nonlinearity analysis of grating eddy current displacement sensor using neural network and genetic algorithm

A grating eddy current displacement sensor(GECDS) can be used in a watertight electronic transducer to realize long range displacement or position measurement with high accuracy in difficult industry conditions.The parameters optimization of the sensor is essential for economic and efficient production.This paper proposes a method to combine an artificial neural network(ANN) and a genetic algorithm(GA) for the sensor parameters optimization.A neural network model is developed to map the complex relationship between design parameters and the nonlinearity error of the GECDS,and then a GA is used in the optimization process to determine the design parameter values,resulting in a desired minimal nonlinearity error of about 0.11%.The calculated nonlinearity error is 0.25%.These results show that the proposed method performs well for the parameters optimization of the GECDS.

Deformation analysis of the flexspline of harmonic drive gears considering the driving speed effect using laser sensors

Accurate description of the elastic deformation of the flexspline is the foundation for optimization design of the structure and conjugate profiles of the harmonic drive gear. This paper proposed an experimental method to investigate the effect of the driving speed on the deformation characteristics of the flexspline. First, an experimental apparatus that integrates a special-fabricated micro-displacement platform and a pair of laser displacement sensors is developed, and the radial displacement of the flexspline is measured in vertical and horizontal directions. Next, the deformation analyses of the flexspline at different driving speeds are performed with our method and the conventional method, and the comparison results reveal that the radial displacement of the flexspline is actually composed of both harmonic and random components, and the amplitude decreases and tends to zero with the increase of the driving speed, especially near the closed end of the flexspline. Last, the mechanisms of the inherent multi-frequency and amplitude attenuation characteristics of the radial displacement of the flexspline are discussed. It is indicated that the impact and friction existing in the flexible bearing of the wave generator is likely responsible for the existence of the random component, and the assumption of linear distribution of the ftexspline deformation along the rotating axis is invalid under high speed condition. Our research promotes the further study on the contact-impact problem of the flexible bearing of the wave generator and the transfer characteristic of the elastic deformation of the flexspline.

Characteristics analysis and parameters optimization for the grating eddy current displacement sensor

The grating eddy current displacement sensor (GECDS) for distance or position measurement used in watertight electronic calipers was described. The sensor relies on repetitive variation of inductance against displacement caused by the change of coupling areas between moving coils and static reflectors. The investigations focused on setting up and utilizing a computer model of the 3D eddy current fields and geometry to analyze causes of the production of measurement blind areas, and to investigate effects of the sensor parameters, such as axial gap between coils and reflectors, reflector length and reflector width on characteristics of the sensor. Simulation results indicated that the sensor has the smallest nonlinearity error of 0.15%, which agrees well with the experimental results.

Micro displacement reconstruction of self-mixing grating interferometer based on Littrow structure

An improved self-mixing grating interferometer based on the Littrow structure has been proposed in this Letter to measure displacement.The grating is integrated inside the interferometer to reduce the impact on the vibration parameters of the object caused by the grating attached to the vibrating object.The+1 st diffracted light returns to the laser cavity after being reflected by the target object,and self-mixing interference occurs.The displacement can be reconstructed by processing the self-mixing signals.The feasibility of the proposed interferometer is demonstrated by experimental measurements,and results show that it can achieve micro displacement measurement with the maximum absolute errors of less than 50 nm.