Proof of concept of a novel absolute rotary encoder

Abstract Rotary encoders are used in many applications that require monitoring or controlling mechanical systems such as robots. Typically, small rotary encoders have poor resolution; this is unfortunate for applications such as robotics in medical surgery procedures. For example, in an articulated robotic endoscope, miniaturization is mandatory and, when automation is desired, high accuracy to track the shape and pose of the device is required; small (few millimeters) and accurate (few hundred  arcsec) rotary encoders are thus needed. Previously, we introduced a novel concept of a miniaturizable angular sensor, called ASTRAS (Angular Sensor for TRAcking System). This was presented as a basic element of a tracking system for articulated endoscopes. The principle of measurement of ASTRAS is based on processing a shadow image cast by a shadow mask onto an image sensor. The characterization of the first prototype of ASTRAS was very promising, however, its angular range of about ±30 degrees was too limiting for many practical applications. In this work, we present an extension of the concept mentioned above to a rotary encoder that can measure one full rotation of 360 degrees thus the name is ASTRAS360. Its working principle bases on encoding the shadow image using colored light to distinguish different angular sectors. The identification of the sector corresponds to a coarse angular measurement, which is afterward refined using the same technique as in ASTRAS. We implemented this concept, realizing a prototype and an algorithm to calculate the angle from the shadow image. The experiments demonstrated the validity of this concept and showed encouraging results with a precision of ∼0.6 arcsec and 6σ-resolution of 3.6 arcsec corresponding to 19 bits.