THE TECHNOLOGY:

NASAs Langley Research Center invites companies to license a new, more accurate method for sensing shape in three dimensions. Using multi-core optical fibers, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, and commercially available software, this advanced technology overcomes the errors experienced with current methods of fiber optic shape measurement, even for complex shapes. Its applications include medical tools, such as flexible endoscopes and other minimally invasive surgical instruments, and systems for structural health monitoring and inspection. FBG sensors, placed at regular intervals along optical fiber, can be used to determine temperature, pressure, and strain measurements. When used in multi-core optical fiber (three or more channels in a single fiber), the strain measurements from each core can indicate the direction and amount of bend in the fiber. The amount of strain in each core is proportional to the bend radius and to the position of each core relative to the center of the bend curve. Using commercially available software to enhance the processing of these directional measurements, this new method gives a highly accurate depiction of how the fiber is positioned. The new process relies on measurements from a free-sleeved, unbound, multi-core fiber, utilizing the natural elasticity of the fiber as it twists and untwists inside the sleeving to minimize internal stresses while conforming to induced shape changes. Other currently used methods derive shape at each sensor group along the fiber, compounding measurement errors from one sensor group to the next as fiber shape is pieced together. The new method eliminates such errors by combining the strain measurements that are taken along the entire fiber into a single shape determination algorithm, giving the true shape of the fiber. Other techniques require that the fiber be bonded to a measured surface or in some other way be constrained to prevent additional errors. Using the new method, the optical fiber is only bonded at its origin, otherwise being left free to twist or untwist according to its own elasticity. This arrangement minimizes the internal stresses of the fiber and allows for more accurate shape measurements. U.S. patent 7813599.

To express interest in this opportunity, please respond to [email protected] with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this FBO notice and your preferred contact information. Please also provide the nature of your interest in the technology along with a brief background of your company. For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at http://technology.nasa.gov/ .

These responses are provided to members of NASA Langleys Office of Strategic Analysis and Business Development OSACB for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. If direct licensing interest results from this posting, OSACB will follow the required formal licensing process of posting in the Federal Register. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.