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All-fiber intensity bend sensor based

on photonic crystal fiber with
asymmetric air-hole structure

Budnicki, Dawid, Szostkiewicz, Lukasz, Szymanski,

Michal, Ostrowski, Lukasz, Holdynski, Zbigniew, et al.

Dawid Budnicki, Lukasz Szostkiewicz, Michal O. Szymanski, Lukasz

Ostrowski, Zbigniew Holdynski, Stanislaw Lipinski, Michal Murawski,
Grzegorz Wojcik, Mariusz Makara, Krzysztof Poturaj, Pawel Mergo, Marek
Napierala, Tomasz Nasilowski, "All-fiber intensity bend sensor based on
photonic crystal fiber with asymmetric air-hole structure
," Proc. SPIE 10433, Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and
Applications XIV, 1043311 (6 October 2017); doi: 10.1117/12.2278650

Event: SPIE Security + Defence, 2017, Warsaw, Poland

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 All-fiber intensity bend sensor based on photonic crystal fiber with
asymmetric air-hole structure
Dawid Budnicki*a, Lukasz Szostkiewicza, Michal O. Szymanskib, Lukasz Ostrowskia, Zbigniew
Holdynskia, Stanislaw Lipinskia, Michal Murawskib, Grzegorz Wojcikc, Mariusz Makaraa, Krzysztof
Poturajc, Pawel Mergoc, Marek Napieralab, Tomasz Nasilowskia;
a
InPhoTech sp. z o.o., 17 Slominskiego St 31, 00-195 Warsaw, Poland;
b
Polish Centre for Photonics and Fibre Optics, Rogoznica 312, 36-060 Glogow Malopolski, Poland;
c
Department of Optical Fiber Technology, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Pl. M. Curie-
Sklodowskiej 3, 20-031 Warsaw, Poland

ABSTRACT

Monitoring the geometry of an moving element is a crucial task for example in robotics. The robots equipped with fiber
bend sensor integrated in their arms can be a promising solution for medicine, physiotherapy and also for application in
computer games.
We report an all-fiber intensity bend sensor, which is based on microstructured multicore optical fiber. It allows to
perform a measurement of the bending radius as well as the bending orientation. The reported solution has a special air-
hole structure which makes the sensor only bend-sensitive.
Our solution is an intensity based sensor, which measures power transmitted along the fiber, influenced by bend. The
sensor is based on a multicore fiber with the special air-hole structure that allows detection of bending orientation in
range of 360°. Each core in the multicore fiber is sensitive to bend in specified direction. The principle behind sensor
operation is to differentiate the confinement loss of fundamental mode propagating in each core. Thanks to received
power differences one can distinguish not only bend direction but also its amplitude. Multicore fiber is designed to
utilize most common light sources that operate at 1.55 µm thus ensuring high stability of operation. The sensitivity of the
proposed solution is equal 29,4 dB/cm and the accuracy of bend direction for the fiber end point is up to 5 degrees for 15
cm fiber length. Such sensitivity allows to perform end point detection with millimeter precision.

Keywords: bend sensor, microstructured multicore optical fiber, optical fiber sensor, intensity sensor

INTRODUCTION
The intensity sensor was designed and fabricated for specific application – robotics. The robots with optical fiber bend
sensors integrated in their arms can be a promising solution for medicine [1], physiotherapy and also for application in
computer games and movies or a humanoid robot [2]. One of the sensor applications would be to use it in an innovative
robot with a flexible gripper arm, which is based on an elephant’s trunk in terms of structure and overall functionality.
Moreover, the all-fiber bend sensor is light, therefore lighter materials can be used to construct robots such as for
composite material. It allows to speed up its movements, which may be useful in industrial robots. The changes of rigid
and heavy robotics arms for lighter and more elastic will be safer for people, which work in near area with robots. This
solution may save area in a production hall, because the security boxes for working robots will not be required. Other
applications for bend sensors consist of structural health monitoring (e.g. bridges, tunnels, pipelines, dams) and
aerospace.
Optical fibers are very interesting for sensors application due to small size and small weight, ability to perform remote
measurements up to several kilometers, high safety - no sparks nor EM interference and high fatigue strength (over 20
years). In general, fiber sensors are based on measurement of one or a few parameters of light beam (i.e. phase [3],
intensity [4], frequency [5] or polarization [6]). This parameters can be changed by other external factors, often
undesirable, e.g. temperature [7], pressure [8] and strain [9]. The fiber bending sensors, which are proposed in the
literature mainly use interferometric method [10-12] or long-period gratings [13] to measure bending. They are
characterized by high sensitivity to external factors (temperature, pressure or stress), therefore these factors have
undesired influence on bending measurements and introduce additional uncertainty of measurement. We present a fiber

Electro-Optical and Infrared Systems: Technology and Applications XIV, edited by David A. Huckridge,
Reinhard Ebert, Helge Bürsing, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10433, 1043311 · © 2017 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/17/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2278650

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 10433 1043311-1

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 optic bend sensor, which is based on microstructured optical fiber that allows to extract bend information basing on light
intensity. This bend sensor allows measurement of the bending radius as well as the bending orientation [14].
Our all-fiber intensity bend sensor measures power transmitted along the fiber, which is dependent on the bend radius.
The sensor is based on a multicore fiber with the special air-hole structure. Each core in the multicore fiber is sensitive to
bend in specified direction and this special structure allows detection of bending orientation in range of 360°.
In order to bring the light beam to each core independently and detect power level in each core, an optical component
fan-in/fan-out has been used. When the optical fiber is bent, the light experiences loss proportional to the bending radius,
therefore the measurement of loss determines bend of sensor’s fiber. The sensor works in the range of telecom
wavelengths. Therefore, our sensor is potentially cheap in mass production and easy to implement.

CONCEPT OF ALL-FIBER BEND SENSOR AND THEORETICAL SIMULATION

The bend sensor is based on multicore optical fiber with asymmetric air-hole structure. The fiber of sensor is
characterized by hexagonal structure with six cores. Each core will experience different confinement loss of propagated
mode, which is a strong function of bending radius and direction.. Such non-centric distribution of cores allows for an
increase to differentiate the losses during change of bend orientation, therefore one can detect different power levels in
each core of multicore fiber. By measuring the intensity in each core independently and comparing these optical power
levels one can define direction and radius of applied bend. The optical beam is coupled to each core independently and
detected in each core with fan-in/fan-out device. The bend measurement system scheme is shown in Figure 1.

Detector
Power splitter
Detector

Detector

Detector
Light source Fiber of sensor
Detector

Fan-In Fan-Out
Detector

Figure 1. Scheme of the bend measurement system

By placing six fundamental cells of such bend sensitive structures (6 cores with asymmetric air holes), each one rotated
by 60° with the respect to the closest one and analyzing the bending loss (each core will have different loss depending on
the bending amplitude and direction), it will be possible to accurately determine the sensor bend.
The fiber structure was designed for sensor of length of 15 cm, angle of sensor bending in range 0÷360° and 1550nm
wavelength. The fiber sensor is fabricated by stack-and-draw technology and made of silica glass. Fabricated fiber is
characterized by easy integration with relatively inexpensive hardware available in the telecommunications market. A
theoretical simulation of the loss dependence on the position of the tip was made for the two opposite bending directions
of the special bend sensitive fiber. The results are presented in Figure 2.

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 17
16
15
14
13
ΔΘ = 0°

Loss [dB]
12
ΔΘ = 180°
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
deviation of the tip [cm]
Figure 2. The theoretical relationship between loss and deviation of the tip.

Theoretical results from Figure 2 gives linear relationship between deviation of the tip and obtained loss level. For
straight fiber sensor the initial loss level is nearly the same. Sensor presented fiber simulation show loss changes strongly
correlated with bend direction. Presented linear relations of bend sensor simplifies data analysis. Special fiber design can
be also used for improvement device sensitivity adjusted to operating conditions. The length of the sensor, degree of
bending and the range of orientation can be adjusted for a specific application. The numerical results of multicore fiber
bend induced loss changes gives information about possible operating relation for our sensor.

MEASURING SYSTEM AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

In this paper, we prepared a probe of the bend sensor, with spliced standard optical fibers (SMF-28) to the one core of
bend-sensing fiber on its both ends (Figure 3a). To connect the special fiber with standard optical fiber (SMF-28) we
developed splicing process (Figure 3b). The result of these processes was to provide control of power launch in the
addressed core (which was necessary for experiments). The fabricated probe allows to test bending the fiber in different
directions and compare received induced transmission changes with theoretical simulations. It is very important step,
which confirms principle of operation of the bend sensor.

a)

b)
Figure 3. Scheme of prepared probe - (a), picture of the spliced the special multicore fiber (left fiber) with standard optical fiber
(SMF-28, right fiber) – (b).

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 The tests consisted of measuring the intensity according to the orientation of the fiber in range 0°÷360° and the change
in bending radius (change of position of the bend fiber tip). For this purpose we used a titanium tube with hollow space
that matched fiber coating outer diameter. The tube was fabricated from titanium, because the material is durable,
flexible and does not deform permanently. We can bend our probe which is immobilized inside the tube and change
direction of bend. The bending of the titanium tube is made in tree-point system, in which the tube takes the shape of an
arc described on a circle. This makes the sample evenly bent. The input and output position of the standard single mode
fiber does not affect the measurement. In the measurement system we used Superluminescent diode with central
wavelength 1550nm as a light and photodiode power sensor. The prepared measurement system is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. The measurement system, which allows to bend fiber in various direction and with different radius bend.

The fiber that was tested in the measurement system was characterized in terms of optical power losses caused by
bending. Measurement was made for the bending within the range 360° (Figure 5a). In our case, the initial position of
the fiber orientation is the position for which the maximum loss is generated. The angle of orientation for the biggest
loss is marked as ΔΘ=0° see Figure 5c. We also changed position of special fiber tip in range from 0 cm (the sensor was
in a straight position) to 0,50cm (Figure 5b). The probe bend test results are shown in Figure 5c and Figure 5d.

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 6,
4,
á
OÔ

f.n
o 0.,
-1
2.

-2
0.2
.
\+.
r`
`r`r
a,r=r"
r\`
\.i `°
a -.t...... 4,1*.
0.3

0.4 100
150
50
deviation of the tip [cm] -50 0
0.5 -150 -100
dA[°]
c)

H=0,20cm
5
H=0,30cm
H=0,35cm
4 H=0,40cm
H=0,45cm
Loss [dB]

3 H=0,50cm

-1
-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80
ΔΘ [°]
d)
Figure 5. Angular position of fiber sensor (a), bent position of fiber sensor (b) 3D dimensional plot presented relationship between
loss, deviation of the tip (H) and probe rotation ΔΘ (c), the relationship between loss and orientation (d)
The developed bend-sensing fiber is very sensitive to changing angle of fiber orientation. The detected changes are in
range of 100° (+/-50° from the orientation of the fiber with the biggest loss (ΔΘ=0° on Figure 5d)). The bend-sensing
fiber is also very sensitive to changes of bending radius and allows to measure deviation of the tip as small as few
millimeters.. The sensitivity is equal 29,4 dB/cm. Larger losses of optical power are generated with higher deviation of
the tip of fiber bend (H). We can detect bend for deviation of the tip even smaller than H=0,5cm.. As the bending
radius decreases, the losses increase. Such experimental results of bend loss dependences are consistent with theoretical
simulation, therefore these results make the sensor a very promising and attractive solution.

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 CONCLUSION
In this paper, we presented solution of bend sensor, which is based on easy method of measurement. Moreover, this
solution has small size and weight and possesses all advantages related to fiber optic technology. The experimental
results for one core of bend-sensing fiber confirm the sensitivity of deviation of the tip is equal 29,4 dB/cm for fiber
oriented to position with the biggest loss. The sensitivity of orientation angle is equal 0,1dB/° for deviation of the tip
equal H=0,5cm. The sensor detected changes in range of 100° for orientation of the special fiber and changes single
millimeters for deviation of the tip.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was supported by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development within the research project
LIDER/103/L-6/14/NCBR/2015.

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