Experimental investigation of a tactile sensor based on bending losses in fiber optics

The authors present experimental results of an investigation of a prototype tactile sensor design based on microbending losses in fiber optics. The parameters which determine the sensitivity of a fiber to bending losses were identified, experiments were performed on a multimode optical fiber, and a prototype tactile sensor was constructed and tested. Results indicated that the limiting factor of the performance of the tactile sensor was the viscoelastic behavior of the fiber´s cladding