Three-Dimensional Touch Probe based on Fiber optic displacement sensors (3rd report)

Abstract

This paper presents an improved touch probe system for higher sensitivity. In this system, three fiber optic displacement sensors measure displacement and direction of a tip ball of the probe. Because the measuring resolution of the displacement was less than 80nm in experiments, a probe pre-travel was determined to 100nm. The variation of the pre-travel was less than 80nm in whole directions. The measuring force was less than 0.8mN in horizontal directions, and was 11mN in vertical direction. A over travel mechanism using kinematic joint requires consideration of its repeatability.