Multimode Waveguide Shape Sensing

Optical fiber shape sensing are important measurement technologies in applications such as healthcare, structural monitoring and robotics. Current state-of-the-art optical fiber shape sensing requires complex sensor structures and interrogation systems. We recently demonstrated that the multimode fiber (MMF) output speckles contain its geometric shape information of the MMF itself. In this paper, we will introduce our recently progresses in this direction, including using machine learning in a proof-of-concept three-dimensional (3D) multi-point deformation sensing via a single MMF, and soft waveguide-based shape sensing. Our results show that a single MMF/soft waveguide based deformation sensor possesses the advantage in terms of system simplicity and sensitivity. It has the potential in deformation monitoring or shape-sensing applications.