The main goal of the project is to develop an innovative application based on an optical sensor able to measure the position and the displacement of a certain object. The optical sensor is made of a rare-earth-doped phosphate glass, which works as a non-contact laser speckle sensor. The composition of the phosphate glass belongs to Li₂O-BaO-Al₂O₃-P₂O₅ oxide system doped with rare-earth oxides (eg. Eu₂O₃, Sm₂O₃ and others). The glass is prepared by a wet non-conventional route, which improves the physical-chemical properties of the final glass. The project develops a novel method for measurement of singular displacements in one and two directions for arbitrarily shaped objects.

The novelty features brought by the project can be summarized as follows:

   i) Elimination of the minimal interference between the object and sensor,

   ii) Shortening of the response time due to the characteristics of modern photoelectronic light detectors,

   iii) Implementation of a flexible method, suitable for a broad range of measuring tasks both in laboratory and industry,

   iv) Innovation regarding a multifunctional sensor. These applications require only direct optical (visual) line by the protection of the active optical path from obstacles, extraneous light interference and vibrations of the sensor body.

The sensor is insensitive to the object shape, distance to the object and any longitudinal or transversal movement of the target when the image sensor is placed in the Fourier plane. The sensor could perform a resolution of 0.3 mdeg for small angular displacement.

The sensor utilization does not require special processing of the object surface, because the irregularities are comparable to the wavelength of the incident light. The sensor is a very robust device working as a non-contact optical system to be used for industrial and instrumentation applications. The additional micro-optical parts, such as micromirrors and/or microlens, allow the usage as an integrated micro-opto-electromechanical microsystem (MOEMS) for industrial and scientific applications. The wider operating temperature range, considered between -40 to 85ºC, makes it applicable for indoor and outdoor conditions, including harsh environment encountered in a wide range of industrial applications and also for steering angle detection in automotive applications (e.g. for electronic stability control). Compared to other technologies, our optical sensor has many advantages like highly accurate angle information, digital output and insensitivity to external noises sources.