3D shape sensing measurements using distributed fiber Bragg gratings

Distributed sensing technology provides engineers with powerful tools for position sensing, 3D sensing, shape sensing, and model validation applications. A new method for fiber-optic 3D shape sensing that can be used in minimally invasive biomedical devices is presented. A shape sensor was made using a heat-shrink tube, a Teflon hard tube and three strings of fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The sensor has compact structure, good flexibility. Besides, a shape reconstruction algorithm is established, for the location of each FBG array on the sensor, the calculation method of curvature and torsion is designed, and the continuous functions of curvature and torsion are constructed by cubic spline interpolation. The shape reconstruction under different bending conditions is realized by using the coordinate system rotation method. In the error analysis stage, the curvature error and torsion angle error of the sensor are optimized by introducing the scale factor. The results show that the optimized algorithm has good shape reconstruction effect.