Optical fibre monitoring and measuring systems from the nanoscale to the human scale

先进的传感器系统是部署物联网应用的重要工具，信息的积累及其处理可以通过许多不同的方式提高生活质量。 适应不断变化的条件的智能环境（如自动驾驶汽车），增强的国家和个人安全，清洁的空气和安全的水或食品供应只是依赖于准确和及时的传感器数据的应用的几个例子。虽然目前存在这样的传感器系统，但是它们大部分依赖于基于许多不同种类的电气设备和各种图像传感器的相对旧的技术。 这种多样性限制了它们的能力和性能，也限制了它们与“智能”系统的集成，在“智能”系统中，必须处理来自许多不同来源的数据。 * 这里提出的研究计划包括利用基于激光和光纤的相对较新的技术来开发一种“通用”的基于光纤的传感系统，该系统可以很容易地适应于测量各种参数，其性能水平取决于成本和用户需求与竞争技术之间的权衡，而无需对设备配置和仪器进行根本性更改。 该系统将足够灵活，可以在环境监测，生物医学设备，结构健康监测，食品安全和制造过程监测中找到应用。 **

Advanced Sensor systems are essential tools for the deployment of Internet of Things applications, whereby the accumulation of information and its processing allows for the improvement of the quality of life in many different ways. Smart environments adapting to changing conditions (such as self-driving vehicles), enhanced national and personal security, clean air and secure water or food supply are but a few examples of applications relying on accurate and timely sensor data. While such sensor systems currently exist, they rely for the most part on relatively old technologies based on many different kinds of electrical devices and various kinds of image sensors. This variety limits their capabilities and performance as well as their integration into "intelligent" systems where data from many different sources must be processed. ***The program of research proposed here consists of leveraging relatively new technologies based on lasers and optical fibers to develop a “universal” optical fiber-based sensing system that can be easily adapted to measuring a wide array of parameters with performance levels dictated by the trade-off between cost and both user requirements and competing technologies, without fundamental changes in the device configurations and instrumentation. This system will be flexible enough to find applications in environmental monitoring, biomedical devices, structural health monitoring, food safety, and manufacturing process monitoring. **