PATHFINDER SHAPE SENSING PLATFORM
TSSC’s Pathfinder shape sensing platform enables the reconstruction and display of the entire shape of a thin, flexible optical fiber. When integrated into medical devices, this provides robots and surgeons with unprecedented feedback on the location and guidance of surgical tools, enables endless opportunities in robotic control, and frees patients from harmful radiative imaging alternatives.
Whenever line of sight is not an option, Pathfinder provides the critical information required to make the right decision in the most difficult environments.
Unlike alternative shape sensing technologies, our solution supports tortuous paths, 6 degrees of freedom, twist and more than 1 meter sensing length.
Pathfinder advanced shape sensing platform features
- Monitors a single 3D shape sensor
- Minimum 60 frames per second refresh rate
- Maximum 30ms hardware latency
- Desktop unit can be used in laboratory environment
- Displays shape in real time on a screen or streams via Ethernet
- Shape measurements are automatically compensated for changes in temperature
What Pathfinder shape sensors platform can measure
- 3D shape
- Twist
- Bending direction and bending radius
- Strain
- Temperature
- Force (haptic feedback)
- Pressure
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The most significant advantage of fiber optic sensing technology is the ability to acquire spatially continuous information along the entire length of an optical fiber with only a single lead cable. Single point measurement devices, such as a strain gauge, only capture information at a discrete point while requiring multiple lead cables and hours to perform an installation.
For additional environmental protection, fiber is often encased within auxiliary buffer tubes or jackets to form a fiber optic cable, otherwise known as a patch cord. As shown in Figure 1(b), fiber is commonly packaged in a tight buffer jacket and loosely incorporated into an outer jacket filled with strength members such as Kevlar strands. These patch cords serve as standoff cables between the sensor and the interrogator.