Reflectometric configuration for polymer optical fiber Bragg grating-based real-time tactile sensing

Abstract

Abstract We implement a single-end-access reflectometric configuration for tactile sensing, incorporating a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) inscribed in a polymer optical fiber (POF). The folded architecture of the single-mode-multimode-single-mode structure effectively mitigates the generation of interference patterns, which are commonly induced by multimodal interference in the POF. Our results reveal a significant reduction in spectral power across a broad wavelength range upon object contact with the FBG. Utilizing the transient power changes at a specific wavelength, we successfully demonstrate real-time tactile sensing with this configuration.