Title: 2 DOF resolution adjustment laser position sensor

Authors: Ahmed Asif Shaik, Nkgatho Sylvester Tlale, Glen Bright

Addresses: Department of Material Science and Manufacturing, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. ' Department of Material Science and Manufacturing, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria 0001, South Africa. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa

Abstract: A low cost sensor system is envisaged that has 2 distinct routes for resolution enhancement in position detection. The main area for application of the sensor design would be in the food processing and packaging industry where position resolution of the end effector is in the millimetre to sub-millimetre range. The sensor concept consists of a grid of laser light detectors attached to the stationary base and a grid of lasers attached to the mobile end effector. The photo detectors on the base provide one level for position detection enhancement, that is, the density of the sensor array. The second degree of freedom in improvement comes from the strategic positioning of a set of lasers attached to the end effector.

Keywords: laser detector screens; direct end effector sensors; 3D position sensors; resolution adjustment; resolution enhancement; mobile end effectors; sensor arrays.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2010.030215

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2010 Vol.8 No.1/2/3/4, pp.348 - 360

Published online: 11 Dec 2009 *

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