Technology Transfer Opportunity High Accurate Position Detection and Shape Sensing with Fiber Optics LarTops79 Description NASAs Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize manufacture and market the following technology License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses THE TECHNOLOGY NASAs Langley Research Center has demonstrated a patent pending method and apparatus for determining the position in three dimensions of any point on an optical fiber The new method uses low reflectance Fiber Bragg Grating FBG strain sensors in a multicore fiber to determine how any point along that fiber is positioned in space The characteristics of optical fibers and the FBGs vary with curvature and by sensing the relative change of FBGs in each of three or more fiber cores the threedimensional change in position can be determined By using this method in monitoring applications where optical fibers can be deployedsuch as in structures medical devices or roboticsprecise deflection end position and location can be determined in near real time This innovative position detection method offers 10 times greater positional accuracy than comparable optical techniques NASAs novel method was developed to more accurately measure the position and shape of optical fibers Multicore optical fibers contain multiple lightguiding cores arranged symmetrically Sensors such as FBGs are embedded into each of the cores Such an arrangement allows for the measurement of strain in each core of the fiber at specific axial locations along the fiber When a multicore fiber is subjected to bending the strain imposed in each core relative to one another is used to provide position information In the past shapesensing measurements using optical fibers estimated bending at sequential points along the fiber and the resulting measurement had many discontinuities and errors NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION Contracting Office Address HOUSTON TX 77058 HOUSTON TX 77058 USABR Primary Point of Contact Kathryn Taylor kathryntaylornasagov Phone Number 2814832361BR Secondary Point of Contact Karen Dailey karenjdaileynasagov Phone Number 2814833445 agencypatentlicensingmailnasagov Tender Notice International Competitive Bidding T2PLaRC00128 United States of America GT90451686

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