This paper presents a fiber optic sensor system, artificial neural networks (fast back-propagation) are employed for the data processing. The use of the neural networks makes it possible for the sensor to be used both for surface roughness and displacement measurement at the same time. The results indicate 100% correct surface classification for ten different surfaces (different materials, different manufacturing methods, and different surface roughnesses) and displacement errors less then ±5 μm. The actual accuracy was restricted by the calibration machine. A measuring range of ±0.8 mm for the displacement measurement was achieved

Butler, C

Lu, Y

Yang, QP

Zhang, K

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

English

Brunel University Research Archive

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 46, NO. 4, AUGUST 1997 899A Fiber Optic Sensor for the Measurementof Surface Roughness and DisplacementUsing Artificial Neural NetworksKuiwei Zhang, Clive Butler, Qingping Yang, Member, IEEE, and Yicheng LuAbstract— This paper presents a fiber optic sensor system.Artificial neural networks (fast back-propagation) are employedfor the data processing. The use of the neural networks makes itpossible for the sensor to be used both for surface roughnessand displacement measurement at the same time. The resultsindicate 100% correct surface classification for ten differentsurfaces (different materials, different manufacturing methods,and different surface roughnesses) and displacement errors lessthen5 m. The actual accuracy was restricted by the calibrationmachine. A measuring range of 0.8 mm for the displacementmeasurement was achieved.Index Terms— Artificial neural network, displacement, fiberoptic sensor, measurement, surface roughness.I. INTRODUCTIONSURFACE roughness and displacement are two very im-portant characteristics for the products of manufactur-ing industry. Significant work has already been done in themeasurement of surface roughness and displacement. Theclassical methods for these measurements are usually basedon mechanical contact. Over the past decade, optical meth-ods for measuring surface roughness and displacement havebeen used in industrial applications [1], [2]. Fiber optic sen-sors can also be fund of use in surface roughness and dis-placement measurement. With the characteristics of smallsize, high speed of response, great accuracy, good reliability,freedom from electromagnetic interference, and most impor-tant—nondestructiveness, the fiber optic sensor is increasinglyused in industry for manufacturing process monitoring andautomation [3]–[6].II. A FIBER OPTIC SENSOR SYSTEMThis paper introduces a fiber optic sensor system, whichis shown in Fig. 1. This system includes a light source, a-coupler, a fiber optic sensor, photodetectors, an amplifiercircuit, a simultaneous sampling and hold circuit, an A/D card,and a computer.A fiber optic sensor has been developed, shown in Fig. 2.It uses the reflective principle and the scattering properties ofManuscript received June 3, 1996.The authors are with Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH,U.K. (e-mail: empgkkz@brunel.ac.uk).Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9456(97)06473-5.Fig. 1. Fiber optic sensor system.Fig. 2. Sensor for surface roughness and displacement.light. A bundle of fibers is used for collecting the reflectedand scattered light. The center fiber is used both for emittingand collecting the light. The use of lenses makes the stand offdistance much larger and this is very important for on-line useof the fiber optic sensor. One of the lenses is designed to bechangeable so that different standoff distances and differentmeasuring ranges can be achieved. Compared with existingsensors, it is very small (length: 38 mm, diameter: 10 mm)and could be even smaller. This is comparable in size toconventional LVDT contact probes.A new kind of -coupler is also introduced. This verysimple coupler makes it possible for the center fiber to be usedboth for emitting and collecting the light. The light source ismonitored during the measuring process and the influence ofthe change of the light source on the output of the sensorcan be compensated. A simultaneous sample and hold circuitis introduced to get the signals at the same time for the same0018–9456/97$10.00  1997 IEEE900 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 46, NO. 4, AUGUST 1997Fig. 3. Sensor output for coarse ground surface.Fig. 4. Sensor output for fine ground surface.displacement. This makes the results of the measurement moreaccurate.III. MEASURING PRINCIPLEThe light from the center fiber is emitted on to the measuringsurface and then reflected and scattered back to the fiberbundle. Generally speaking, the signals (proportional to thecollected light intensities) depend mainly on the displacementand the surface roughness (including finish, texture, and re-flectivity). The closer the surface departs from the focusedpoint, the more light is collected by the center fiber and theless light collected by the outer fiber. The rougher the surfaceis, the less light is specularly reflected and the more the lightscattered. The following function can be used to describe thevariation of the light intensities with the displacement and thesurface roughnessWhere is the light intensity vector; is the displacement andis the surface roughness. The outputs of sensor for coarseground surface and for fine ground surface are shown in Figs. 3and 4. From these two figures we can see clearly the actualrelationships.Fig. 5. Neural network for surface classification.Fig. 6. Neural network for displacement.IV. EXPERIMENT AND DATA PROCESSINGThe experiment involves the calibration of the sensor againstten different samples, including polished, milled (steel), coarseground, fine ground, spark eroded, matt black (painted), mattwhite (painted), milled (aluminum), perspex, and nylon sur-faces. There are big variations among the outputs of the sensorfrom the different surfaces. The gains and the offsets of theamplifier circuit is designed to be adjustable. The workpiecesare placed on the motor driven table. The displacement and theoutputs of the sensor are recorded simultaneously. The outputsof the sensor are voltages, which are represented by vector .The function described in Section III is only qualitative, nota quantitative description. Finding the quantitative relationshipbetween the light intensity and the displacement and betweenthe light intensity and the surface roughness is not an easy job.An artificial neural network is the most appropriate techniqueto solve this kind of problem [7]–[9].ZHANG et al.: MEASUREMENT OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS AND DISPLACEMENT 901Fig. 7. Classification for surfaces.In order to determine the displacement and the surfaceroughness from the signals derived from the collected lightintensities, two separate artificial neural networks (fast back-propagation) are used for data processing. The artificial neuralnetwork A (ANN-A), shown in Fig. 5, is for surface classi-fication, and the artificial neural network B (ANN-B), shownin Fig. 6, is for displacement.The outputs of sensor , which are scaled to ( 1, 1)to cope with the input function, and the code () of the samples are used to train the networkANN-A. ANN-A is a seven-input and ten-outputs three-layersnetwork. The input activation function is set toand the output activation function is set to linear function,. The range for input is ( 1, 1). The output is a surfacecode in digital form. For example, representsthe no. 1 (polished) surface, represents the no.10 (nylon) surface, and so on. The number of hidden cells isdifficult to optimize. It is chosen mainly based on experience.Twelve hidden cells are used for this sample.The same outputs of sensor and the displacement areused to train the network ANN-B. ANN-B is a seven-input andone-output three-layers network. The input activation functionis set to and the output activation function is setto linear function, . The ranges for input and output bothare ( 1, 1). The output of displacement is in continuousanalog form. The number of hidden cells is ten in this sample.Actually, ANN-B are trained ten times using the ten differentsets of data from ten different samples.The initial seed values for the neural networks influence thetime of training. Several initial seed values have been tried.The learning rate is very important for the overall trainingspeed. If it is too small, convergence will be very slow. Ifit is too large, convergence initially will be very fast, butthe algorithm will eventually oscillate and thus not reach aminimum. or is recommended for the learning rate.is the number of the training items.Sometimes a network may get itself trapped in local minimawith no way out. In this case, “kicking” the network isnecessary. This is to increase or decrease all the weights inthe certain range by a random number.V. MEASURING RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF ERRORSAfter the training of the neural network, the weights of theneural network can be saved. They can be reloaded at any timeto test the experiment data to determine the results. The resultsfor the surface classifications are shown in Fig. 7. The data arefrom the same ten surfaces but the different collections. Theerrors depend on the confidence level. The confidence level inthis figure is 95%.The results for the displacement and errors are shown inFig. 8. This is an example (coarse ground surface) for thedisplacement. The errors are the differences between the outputof the neural network and the displacement measured by thecalibration machine (profile projector). The output and thedisplacement are nearly on the same line. The difference isshown on a different scale to illustrate the errors. The errorsdepend on the measuring range and also the confidence level.The confidence level in this figure is 99%.The measuring results indicate that 100% correct surfaceclassification for ten different surfaces and errors less then5 m (within the measuring range of 0.8 mm) for thedisplacement measurements. The result would be significantlyimproved if a more precise reference displacement measuringinstrument had been available.In order to get more accurate results some improvementshave been made. These include the monitoring of the lightsource; a simultaneous sampling and hold circuit for theA/D converter, and some data processing techniques for thedata collection. Ambient temperature is another importantparameter that influences the results. Compensation wouldprovide for further improvement. Different kinds of fibers have902 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 46, NO. 4, AUGUST 1997Fig. 8. Displacement and errors.also been tried. Parameters such as the materials, the diameterand the numerical aperture of fibers all have an influence onthe diameter of the focal spot and also on the precision of themeasurements.VI. CONCLUSIONSThe sensor introduced in this paper is very compact and theuse of a neural network is very effective in analyzing the data.The sensor can be used for on-line monitoring duringthe manufacturing process for both surface roughness anddisplacement. Soft deformable materials can also be measured.It will find applications in automatic inspection and for qualitycontrol in manufacturing industry.The results indicate that 100% correct surface classificationfor ten different surfaces (different materials, different man-ufacturing methods, and different surface roughnesses) anderrors less then 5 m (actual accuracy was restricted bythe calibration machine) with a measuring range of 0.8 mmfor the displacement measurements.REFERENCES[1] R. Brodmann, G. Rodenstock, and G. Thurn, “An optical instrumentfor measuring the surface roughness in production control,” Ann. CIRP,vol. 33, no. 1, p. 403, 1984.[2] K. Yamazaki, K. S. Lee, H. Aoyama, and M. Sawabe, “Noncontactprobe for continuous measurement of surface inclination and positionusing dynamic irradiation of light beam,” Ann. CIRP, vol. 42, no. 1, p.585, 1993.[3] P. J. Murphy and T. P. Coursolle, “Fiber optic displacement sensoremploying graded index lens,” Appl. Opt., vol. 29, no. 4, p. 544, 1990.[4] M. Abe, S. Ohta, and M. Sawabe, “Surface inspection using optical fibersensor,” in Proc. SPIE, 1990, vol. 1332, p. 366.[5] A. W. Domanski and T. R. Wolinski, “Surface roughness measurementwith optical fibers,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 41, p. 1057, Dec.1992.[6] T. Pfeifer, “Fiberoptics for in-line production measurement,” Ann. CIRP,vol. 41, no. 1, p. 577, 1992.[7] K. Yoshitomi, A. Ishimaru, J. N. Hwang, and J. S. Chen, “Surface rough-ness determination using spectral correlations of scattered intensities andan artificial neural network technique,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat.,vol. 41, p. 498, Apr. 1993.[8] Q. Yang and C. Butler, “An optical fiber sensor for displacementand surface topography measurement using neural networks,” in Proc.IMEKO, 1995, p. 1737.[9] K. Zhang and C. Butler, “A fiber optic sensor for surface roughness anddisplacement measurement,” in Proc. ISMQC’95, 1995, p. 355.Kuiwei Zhang received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. de-grees in mechanical engineering from NortheasternUniversity, Shenyang, China, in 1982 and 1986,respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D.degree in the Department of Manufacturing andEngineering Systems, Brunel University, Uxbridge,Middlesex, U.K.He worked as Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, andDirector of the Tolerance and Measurement Tech-nology Laboratory at Northeastern University. From1992 to 1993, he was a Visiting Scholar withBrunel Centre for Manufacturing Meteorology, Brunel University. His currentresearch interests are in sensors, measurement, and dimensional meteorology.Clive Butler received the B.Sc. degree in physicsfrom the University of Manchester, Manchester,U.K., in 1963, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degreesfrom Imperial College, London, U.K., both in 1968.He has held a number of industrial posts includ-ing Chief Physicist, MOT Ltd., Director, Metro-nomic Technology Ltd., and Digital MeteorologyLtd. Previously, he was Director of Research at Wat-ford College of Technology, Watford, U.K. Since1986, he has been a Reader at Brunel University,Uxbridge, Middlesex, U.K. His current researchinterests are in dimensional meteorology and quality systems. He has presentedmore than 60 papers in applied optics, printing technology, meteorology, andquality management.Dr. Butler is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and member of theInstitute of Quality Assurance.Qingping Yang (M’97) received the Diploma in in-strumentation and measurement from Chendu Aero-nautical Polytechnic, Chendu, China, in 1983. Hewas awarded a scholarship to study at Brunel Uni-versity, Uxbridge, Middlesex, U.K., in 1988, andreceived the Ph.D. degree in 1992.He then was an Assistant Engineer, Deputy Headof Department of Measurement and Testing in theAircraft Structural Strength Research Institute (Min-istry of Aerospace), Shaanxi Province, China. Hecurrently lectures on manufacturing meteorology,instrumentation design, and quality control. He has published more than 20papers on sensors, transducers, instrumentation, and measurement.Yicheng Lu received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degreesfrom Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian,China, in 1981 and 1984, respectively, and thePh.D. degree from Brunel University, Uxbridge,Middlesex, U.K., in 1992.He was Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer at North-western Polytechnical University. He then joined aresearch team as a Research Fellow working onoptical fiber sensors at Brunel University. He iscurrently a Senior Engineer at Bookham Technol-ogy Ltd., developing integrated optical sensors andoptical fiber sensors.

A ﬁber optic sensor for surface roughness and displacement measurement,” in

An optical ﬁber sensor for displacement and surface topography measurement using neural networks,” in

An optical instrument for measuring the surface roughness in production control,”

Fiber optic displacement sensor employing graded index lens,”

Fiberoptics for in-line production measurement,”

Noncontact probe for continuous measurement of surface inclination and position using dynamic irradiation of light beam,”

Qingping Yang (M’97) received the Diploma in instrumentation and measurement from Chendu Aeronautical Polytechnic, Chendu, China, in 1983. He was awarded a scholarship to study at

received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Northwestern Polytechnical University,

received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from Northeastern University,

received the B.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Manchester,

Surface inspection using optical ﬁber sensor,” in

Surface roughness determination using spectral correlations of scattered intensities and an artiﬁcial neural network technique,”

Surface roughness measurement with optical ﬁbers,”

A fibre optic sensor for the measurement of surface roughness and displacement using artificial neural networks

K. Zhang

C. Butler

Q. Yang

Y. Lu

Crossref

A fiber optic sensor for the measurement of surface roughness and displacement using artificial neural networks

A fibre optic sensor for the measurement of surface roughness and displacement using artificial neural networks

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Brunel University Research Archive

Crossref