Optical displacement sensor using dual reference reflectors
AssigneeLucas Industries public limited company
InventorsRobert A. Pinnock, Stephen D. Hawker, Roger J. Hazelden, Izumi Sakai
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Abstract
An optical displacement sensor comprises first and second optical fibers which transmit light to and receive light reflected from first and second fixed reflectors. A third optical fiber transmits light to and receives light reflected from a moving reflector on the end of a core which moves in response to the displacement to be measured. The intensities of the light reflected to the fibers allows the displacement to be determined with immunity from variations such as in transmissivity and refractive index of a medium between the fibers and the reflectors.
Claims10
An optical displacement sensor comprising a first reference reflector, first means cooperating with said first reflector to define a first optical path for transmitting light to and receiving light from said first reference reflector to establish a first reference datum, a second reference reflector, second means cooperating with said second reference reflector to define a second optical path for transmitting light to and receiving light from said second reference reflector to establish a second reference datum, a moving reflector responsive to a displacement to be measured, third means cooperating with said moving reflector to define a third optical path for transmitting light to and receiving light from said moving reflector to establish the displacement of said moving reflector relative to said reference data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.