Design and Mathematical Modeling of a Fiber-optic Displacement and Force Sensor

We report on the design, mathematical modeling and preliminary development work for a novel fiber optic force sensor for applications of force sensing and force-feedback in robotic surgery and in other systems where a small passive sensor immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI) may be needed. The proposed sensor uses a novel (patent pending) approach, not reported in the existing literature, based on a fiber collimator and a four-quadrant dichroic mirror. The sensor is small enough to fit at the distal end of typical surgical devices for laparoscopic surgery (d<10 mm), can be assembled from glass/dielectric materials (EMI immune) and does not require active local powering and conditioning (filtering, amplification) of the signal it produces in response to an applied external force.