Optical tactile sensor for robots

Abstract

A cheap, reliable and reasily implementable optical tactile sensor is described. Light is transmitted through an optical fibre by total internal reflection at the core-cladding interface. If the core-cladding interfaces are parallel, an incident meridional ray will continue to be reflected and will be transmitted through the fibre. By applying force to the fibre, one can cause attenuation or transmission loss, The attenuation in intensity of light transmitted is due mainly to changes in the angle of reflection at the border or core and cladding. Any pressure on the fibre will result in refraction rather than total internal reflection with the subsequent loss of the light ray into the cladding.