Development of an Exclusive Sensor for Detecting Positions of Field Robot Arms

In order to comprise a basic closed-loop control system for a field robot it is necessary to detect the piston rod stroke of a hydraulic cylinder. There are mary conventional type sensors which can detect the displacement of cylinders. However, they cannot reveal the original performance normally or the cannot be applied at all where the operating circumstance of cylinders is beyond specifications of sensors. In this paper, an exclusive method for detecting the piston rod stroke is suggested, which adopts a remote detecting technique using optical fiber sensors. Several experiments using the prototype are executed for verifying the effectiveness of the suggested method and the possibility of the accurate detection of stroke.