Electronic and Software Interface for Sensor Arrays Based on Fiber-Optic Sensing Technology

Abstract :

Nowadays, one of the biggest challenges in using large tactile sensor fields are the wiring complexity for interfacing the single sensor elements as well as the large amount of data that has to be transmitted and processed by a central processing unit. That is why tactile sensors based on optical signal transmitters are considered as not capable of being integrated into technical systems. Especially, optical transmitters require a lot of space for transforming optical information into a digitally processable value. In this document, a small interface electronics together with a fast, simple, and robust processing software designed for a small and cheap microcontroller ist presented. This sensor processing system is exemplarily implemented as an interface for Kinotex Sensors [4], but can be used for every other sensor using optical fibers as transmitter.