Development of a robust electro-optical proximity sensor

The development of a robust fiber-optic proximity sensor is presented. A method is proposed by which to solve the problem of robustness of amplitude- and phase-modulated electrooptical proximity sensors to variations in surface-reflection characteristics, and to reduce the influence of distance and orientation measurements on one other. The method comprises three different methodologies, which are combined for better efficiency: integration of distance and orientation sensors, a novel polarization-based optical-filtering approach, and active sensing. Emphasis is given to unique solutions for background-noise interference and dynamic-range-limitation problems