Polymer-optical sensor glove for the precise acquisition of finger and hand movements

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Ludger Overmeyer
• Subject Area: Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics ; Production Automation and Assembly Technology
• Term: from 2018 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 401649026

• Final Report Year: 2022

Final Report Abstract

In the project "Polymer optical sensor glove for precision detection of finger and hand movements", the engineering and scientific foundations for a sensor glove were created and investigated. These foundations include the fabrication and characterization of a sensor based on fiber-Bragg-gratings (FBGs) in a polymer optical fiber as well as different connection techniques of the sensor to the optical evaluation unit and also to an application in a textile glove. The polymer optical fiber was structured with UV light using a phase mask technique by translational movement to several positions along the fiber axis, as well as by rotation to different angles, so that eccentric FBGs with different grating constants were fabricated. These eccentric FBGs change their signal like normal FBGs when different temperatures or strain are applied, but due to their eccentricity within the fiber core also the fiber is bent. Depending on applied physical factors on the sensor, different parameters of the characteristic signal of an FBG change, so that different influences can be differentiated from each other. Due to the differentiability and the arrangement of the FBGs within a sensor, as well as the application of sensors to the different joints in the hand, it is possible to record the bending of the joints and to detect the movement as well as the direction of movement by displaying it over time.

Publications

• Polymeroptische Fasersensorik; Drittes Deutsches POF-Symposium 2020, Garbsen, Germany, pp.131-145, 2020, ISBN:978-3-95900-442-8
  Lennart Leffers, Kort Bremer, Bernhard Roth
  
• "Bend Sensor based on Eccentrical Bragg Gratings in Polymer Optical Fibres," in 2021 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference, OSA Technical Digest (Optica Publishing Group, 2021), paper ch_4_3
  L. Leffers, J. Locmelis, K. Bremer, B. Roth, and L. Overmeyer
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/CLEO/Europe-EQEC52157.2021.9541574)
• "Eccentrical Bragg gratings in multimode polymer optical fibres for the 3D detection of bending," Proc. SPIE 11773, Micro-structured and Specialty Optical Fibres VII, 117730R (18 April 2021)
  Lennart Leffers, Julia Locmelis, Kort Bremer, Bernhard Roth, Ludger Overmeyer
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2592575)
• "Polymer Optical Fibre Bend Sensor based on Eccentrical Bragg Gratings," 2021 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), 2021, pp. 1-2
  L. Leffers, J. Locmelis, K. Bremer, B. Roth and L. Overmeyer
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1364/CLEO_SI.2021.STu2F.8)
• Optical Bend Sensor Based on Eccentrically Micro-Structured Multimode Polymer Optical Fibers, in IEEE Photonics Journal, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1-7, Oct. 2021, Art no. 6800307
  Leffers, L., Locmelis, J., Bremer, K., Roth, B., Overmeyer, L.
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOT.2021.3111298)
• "Polymer optical bend sensor based on eccentric fiber Bragg gratings for 3D shape detection," Proc. SPIE 11998, Organic Photonic Materials and Devices XXIV, 1199808 (7 March 2022)
  Lennart Leffers, Bernhard Roth, Ludger Overmeyer
  (See online at https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2609764)