CN112230345A

Movatterモバイル変換

Info

Publication number: CN112230345A
Application number: CN202011232284.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 肖经; 史德海; 苏云赫; 韦美丽; 蔡凯达
Original assignee: Guilin University of Electronic Technology
Current assignee: Guilin University of Electronic Technology
Priority date: 2020-11-06
Filing date: 2020-11-06
Publication date: 2021-01-15

Abstract

Translated fromChinese

本发明提供了一种光纤自动耦合对准设备和方法，用于对第一光纤和第二光纤进行耦合对准。光纤自动耦合对准设备包括：光纤通讯光器件，光纤通讯光器件用于与第一光纤和第二光纤连接；处理装置，处理装置与第一光纤或第二光纤连接；图像采集装置，图像采集装置用于在至少两个不同的方向上分别采集光纤通讯光器件的轮廓图像并发送至处理装置；控制装置，控制装置与处理装置连接，且控制装置用于调节第一光纤和第二光纤的位置以实现耦合对准。本发明通过两步实现了对第一光纤和第二光纤的自动对准耦合，提高了效率。

The present invention provides an optical fiber automatic coupling and alignment device and method for coupling and aligning a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber. The optical fiber automatic coupling alignment equipment includes: an optical fiber communication optical device, the optical fiber communication optical device is used for connecting with the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber; a processing device, the processing device is connected with the first optical fiber or the second optical fiber; an image acquisition device, an image acquisition device The device is used to collect contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device in at least two different directions and send them to the processing device; the control device is connected to the processing device, and the control device is used to adjust the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber. position for coupling alignment. The invention realizes the automatic alignment and coupling of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber through two steps, thereby improving the efficiency.

Description

Optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus and method

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of packaging, and particularly relates to an optical fiber automatic coupling alignment device and an optical fiber automatic coupling alignment method.

Background

In the related art, the price of the optical fiber device in China is high at present, the cost of the optical fiber device mainly lies in the packaging process, and the packaging cost accounts for about 70% to 90% of the total cost of the optical fiber device. The coupling butt joint of the optical fiber and the coupling of the optical fiber and the optical fiber in production are finished by more than 80 percent of traditional labor-intensive manual or semi-automatic operation. In this mode of production, the direct coupling results in a too low efficiency due to the fact that the light has a certain scattering angle in the fiber.

Disclosure of Invention

Embodiments according to the present invention aim to solve or improve at least one of the above technical problems.

It is a first object according to an embodiment of the present invention to provide an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus.

It is a second object according to an embodiment of the present invention to provide an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment method.

To achieve the first object according to the embodiments of the present invention, an optical fiber automatic coupling alignment apparatus is provided for performing coupling alignment between a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber, and includes: the optical fiber communication optical device is used for being connected with the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber; the processing device is used for receiving the optical signal of the first optical fiber or the second optical fiber; the image acquisition device is used for respectively acquiring contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device in at least two different directions and sending the contour images to the processing device; and the control device is connected with the processing device and is used for adjusting the positions of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber to realize coupling alignment.

In this solution, the light has a certain scattering angle in the fiber, and the direct coupling efficiency is too low. If the optical fiber is directly subjected to image processing by adopting a visual technology, the image edge is not easy to extract due to the small diameter of the optical fiber. The optical fiber communication optical device can be an optical fiber collimator, the first optical fiber can be used as an input optical fiber, the second optical fiber is used as an output optical fiber, and the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber are respectively connected to the optical fiber communication optical device. The image acquisition device is used for acquiring the outline image of the optical fiber communication optical device, so that the image edge can be extracted more easily. The contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device are extracted in at least two different directions, the feature extraction of the contour images is carried out on the contour images in the two directions through a computer program in the processing device, then an analysis result is obtained through analysis, the processing device controls the action of the control device according to the analysis result, the control device drives the optical fiber communication optical device to move in the different directions, and therefore the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber can achieve coupled coarse alignment. When the processing device receives the optical signal of the first optical fiber or the second optical fiber, the processing device processes the optical signal to obtain a processing result, and the processing device further performs fine alignment on the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber on the basis of coarse alignment according to the processing result. Thus, self-aligned coupling to the optical fiber can be achieved in two steps.

In addition, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention may further have the following additional technical features:

in the above technical solution, the optical fiber automatic coupling alignment apparatus further includes: and the optical power measuring device is arranged between the processing device and the first optical fiber or the second optical fiber and is used for measuring the optical power and sending the optical power to the processing device.

In the technical scheme, when the first optical fiber is used as an input optical fiber to input an optical signal into the first optical fiber, the second optical fiber is used as an output optical fiber, laser can be emitted by a laser device to serve as input light entering the first optical fiber, the laser device is connected with the first optical fiber and directly couples red light into the first optical fiber, the second optical fiber is connected with an optical power measuring device, the optical power measuring device can be an optical power meter, for measuring the received infrared light wavelength and infrared light power value in real time and sending them to the processing device, which, according to the light power value measured by the light power meter in real time, and based on the light power value detected in the coarse adjustment stage as the reference, a driving signal is sent to the control device, and the control device, according to the driving signal, and sequentially adjusting the position of the maximum coupling ratio of the optical fiber communication optical device in different directions, wherein the position of the maximum coupling ratio is the optimal position of optical fiber alignment coupling.

In any one of the above technical solutions, the image capturing apparatus includes: the first image acquisition element is arranged in the first direction and is connected with the processing device; the second image acquisition element is arranged in the second direction, and the first image acquisition element is connected with the processing device; the first image acquisition element and the second image acquisition element are respectively used for acquiring the outline image of the optical fiber communication optical device.

In this technical solution, the first image capturing element and the second image capturing element may be cameras capable of converting an optical image into a digital signal, and may be used as a first direction for setting the first image capturing element on a coordinate of a coordinate system, and may be used as a second direction for setting the second image capturing element on the coordinate of the coordinate system. The first image acquisition element and the second image acquisition element respectively acquire the outline of the optical fiber communication optical device in two directions so as to respectively obtain outline images. In order to enable the first image acquisition element to acquire a clear outline image, a first light source is arranged in the first direction, and the first light source is arranged coaxially with the first image acquisition element. Likewise, in order for the second image pickup element to pick up a sharp contour image, a second light source is provided in the second direction, the second light source being disposed coaxially with the second image pickup element. The first image acquisition element and the second image acquisition element convert the respectively acquired outline images into digital signals and send the digital signals to the processing device for image processing.

In any of the above technical solutions, the control device includes: the first control assembly is connected with the optical fiber communication optical device and the processing device respectively; the second control assembly is respectively connected with the optical fiber communication optical device and the processing device; and the controller is respectively connected with the first control assembly and the second control assembly.

In the technical scheme, the first control assembly and the second control assembly are respectively connected with the optical fiber communication optical device, and the first control assembly is used for adjusting the displacement of the optical fiber communication optical device so as to achieve the purpose of roughly adjusting the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber. The second control assembly is used for adjusting the rotation angle of the optical fiber communication optical device so as to achieve fine adjustment of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber, and therefore the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber can be automatically coupled and aligned. The controller sends signals to the first control assembly and the second control assembly respectively. The controller can control the motor to drive the first control component to generate displacement change in different directions, or the seven-axis motor controller can drive the second control component to generate rotation angle change, so that the movement or rotation of the optical fiber communication optical device is controlled, and the aim of adjusting the alignment coupling of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber is fulfilled.

In any of the above technical solutions, the first control assembly includes: the first clamp is connected with the optical fiber communication optical device; the first fine tuning frame is connected with the first clamp and the controller respectively and used for adjusting the displacement of the optical fiber communication optical device.

In the technical scheme, the first clamp is a special clamp, the first fine adjustment frame is a three-dimensional high-precision electronic control fine adjustment frame, and displacement change can occur in three directions of axes of coordinate axes, namely axes and axes. The first fine-tuning frame is controlled by the controller to respectively carry out displacement adjustment on the optical fiber communication optical device in three directions, so that the purpose of carrying out coarse adjustment on the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber is achieved.

In any of the above technical solutions, the second control assembly includes: the second clamp is connected with the optical fiber communication optical device; and the second fine adjustment frame is connected with the second clamp and the controller respectively and is used for adjusting the rotating angle of the optical fiber communication optical device.

In the technical scheme, the second clamp is a special clamp, and the second fine adjustment frame is a two-dimensional high-precision electric control fine adjustment frame and can rotate on a two-dimensional angle. The second fine adjustment frame is controlled by the controller to control the rotation angle of the optical fiber communication optical device, the single degree of freedom sequentially swings the diameter of the optical fiber communication optical device corresponding to the radian and then searches for the position of the maximum coupling rate, and at the moment, the optical fiber is aligned with the best coupling position, so that the purpose of fine adjustment of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber is achieved.

In any of the above technical solutions, the apparatus for automatically coupling and aligning an optical fiber further includes: an optical shock platform; wherein, at least one part of the control device is arranged on the optical shockproof platform.

In the technical scheme, the optical shockproof platform is used for installing a track, and a first fine adjustment frame in the control device is arranged on the track and can move along the track under the control of the controller. The second fine tuning frame in the control device is arranged on the track and can rotate by an angle under the control of the controller. The optical shockproof platform can reduce the vibration generated by the second fine tuning frame in the rotating process or the first fine tuning frame in the moving process, so that the efficiency and the accuracy of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber in the coupling alignment process can be ensured.

In order to achieve the second object according to the embodiment of the present invention, an optical fiber automatic coupling alignment method is provided in an embodiment of the present invention, where the optical fiber automatic coupling alignment apparatus in any embodiment is adopted, and the optical fiber automatic coupling alignment method includes: respectively collecting outline images of the optical fiber communication optical device in at least two directions; processing the outline image to obtain a first processing result; carrying out displacement adjustment on the optical fiber communication optical device according to the first processing result; processing the light source signal output by the optical fiber to obtain a second processing result; and adjusting the angle of the optical fiber communication optical device according to the second processing result.

In the technical scheme, the contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device are collected in at least two directions, the contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device in the two directions are compared and the like, a first processing result is obtained, and the optical fiber communication optical device can be subjected to displacement adjustment according to the first processing result. The light source signal output by the optical fiber is processed to obtain a second processing result, and the angle of the optical fiber communication optical device is processed according to the second processing result, so that the aim of aligning and coupling the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber is fulfilled.

In any of the above technical solutions, processing the contour image to obtain a first processing result specifically includes: respectively carrying out Gaussian blur and then downsampling on the contour images in at least two directions; extracting edge features of the contour image according to a Gaussian pyramid algorithm; calculating relative deviation according to the edge characteristics and correcting the deviation; calculating the position coordinates of the edge features parallel to each other after correcting the deviation; and obtaining a first processing result according to the position coordinates.

In the technical scheme, the edge features of the contour image are extracted by adopting a Gaussian pyramid algorithm, relative deviation is calculated and corrected according to the edge features, then the position coordinates of the edge features which are parallel to each other after the deviation is corrected are calculated, and a first processing result is obtained according to the position coordinates. In this embodiment, on the coordinate axis, the maximum coupling ratio position may be found after sequentially swinging the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator based on the single degree of freedom after the coarse adjustment, that is, on the basis of the coarse adjustment position, the second fine adjustment frame swings the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator in a certain rotation direction at this time, and stores the optical power meter values swinging in real time as an array, and searches for the maximum value of the optical power meter values after the swinging is completed. The corresponding position is the maximum optical coupling position in the first rotation direction. And then the second fine tuning frame swings in a second rotation direction, the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator at the moment is stored as an array, and the maximum numerical value of the optical power meter is searched after the swing is finished. The corresponding position is the maximum optical coupling position in the second rotation direction.

In any of the above technical solutions, processing the light source signal output by the optical fiber to obtain a second processing result specifically includes: monitoring the measured value of the optical power measuring device in real time; detecting the optical power value after carrying out displacement adjustment on the optical fiber communication optical device; and obtaining a second processing result according to the measured value and the optical power value of the optical power measuring device.

In the technical scheme, the optical power value is measured in real time through an optical power meter. The position of the maximum coupling rate is searched after the single degree of freedom of the first rotation direction and the second rotation direction which take the optical power value detected in the coarse adjustment stage as the reference sequentially swings the corresponding radian of the collimator diameter, and the position is the optimal coupling position of the optical fiber alignment.

Additional aspects and advantages of embodiments in accordance with the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of embodiments in accordance with the invention.

Drawings

The above and/or additional aspects and advantages of embodiments according to the present invention will become apparent and readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a machine vision system of the related art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the components of an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a fiber auto-coupling alignment device according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an image capture device of an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment device according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic top view of an apparatus for automatic fiber coupling alignment according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic front view of an optical fiber communication device of an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a side view configuration of a fiber optic communication optics of a fiber optic self-coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram illustrating an application state of an optical fiber communication optical device of the automatic optical fiber coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is one of the flow charts of a method for automatic fiber coupling alignment according to some embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a second flowchart of a method for automatic fiber coupling alignment according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 13 is a pyramid image of an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a Gaussian pyramid and Laplacian pyramid of an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment device according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a real-time monitored gradient search of an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus trapped in one of local maximum dead cycles according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 16 is a second schematic diagram of a real-time monitored gradient search of an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus for trapping local maximum dead cycles according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 17 is a third schematic diagram illustrating a gradient search of real-time monitoring of an apparatus for automatic fiber coupling alignment falling into a local maximum dead cycle, according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 18 is a third flowchart of a method for automatic fiber coupling alignment according to some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 19 is a fourth flowchart of a method for automatic fiber coupling alignment according to some embodiments of the invention.

Wherein, the corresponding relationship between the reference numbers and the component names in fig. 1 is:

100': a machine vision system.

Wherein, the correspondence between the reference numbers and the part names in fig. 2 to 19 is:

100: an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment device; 110: an optical fiber communication optical device; 112: a first 1/4 pitch autofocus lens; 114: a second 1/4 pitch autofocus lens; 120: a processing device; 122: a motion control module; 124: a display processing module; 126: an image recognition and processing module; 128: a coarse scanning algorithm module; 1210: a fine scanning algorithm module; 130: an image acquisition device; 132: a first image capturing element; 134: a second image capturing element; 140: a control device; 142: a first control assembly; 1422: a first clamp; 1424: a first fine adjustment frame; 144: a second control assembly; 1442: a second clamp; 1444: a second fine tuning frame; 146: a controller; 150: optical power measuring device: 160: an optical shock platform; 170: a laser; 180: a display; 200: a first optical fiber; 300: a second optical fiber; 400: contour lines; 500: a pyramid; x: a first direction; z: a second direction; y: and a third direction.

Detailed Description

In order that the above objects, features and advantages of embodiments in accordance with the present invention can be more clearly understood, embodiments in accordance with the present invention are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments of the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

In the related prior art, coupling and butting or aligning of the optical fibers, the problems of poor repeatability, poor performance consistency, low yield, low production efficiency and high production cost of products exist, and the requirements of high efficiency and shortening of alignment and coupling time are shown.

Machine vision technology has found widespread use in various fields in recent years. As a high-precision and highly automated advanced technology, a machine vision technology has a relatively sophisticated system, and a machine vision system 100' is formed, as shown in fig. 1. The machine vision technology enables various machines to have a vision function from late birth in 1930 to nearly 90 years now. Machine vision technology is mainly used for quality control, process control and motion control, and the superiority attracts more and more people. Many mechanical vision based systems have been developed, for example, machine vision technology has been used to implement a system for classifying mechanically screened aggregates by particle size, which has detection accuracy and speed far exceeding those of manual detection, and which has high working quality and can be in operation for a long time.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments according to the invention, however, embodiments according to the invention may be practiced in other ways than those described herein, and therefore the scope of embodiments according to the invention is not limited by the specific embodiments disclosed below.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 2, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100 for coupling and aligning a firstoptical fiber 200 and a secondoptical fiber 300, the optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100 including: the opticalfiber communication device 110 is used for receiving the connection of the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300, theprocessing device 120, theimage acquisition device 130 and thecontrol device 140. Theprocessing device 120 is configured to receive the optical signal of the firstoptical fiber 200 or the secondoptical fiber 300. Theimage capturing device 130 is configured to capture the contour images of the opticalfiber communication device 110 in at least two different directions, and send the contour images to theprocessing device 120. Thecontrol device 140 is connected to theprocessing device 120, and thecontrol device 140 is used to adjust the positions of the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 to achieve the coupling alignment.

In this embodiment, the light has a certain scattering angle in the optical fiber, and the direct coupling efficiency is too low. If the optical fiber is directly subjected to image processing by adopting a visual technology, the image edge is not easy to extract due to the small diameter of the optical fiber. The opticalfiber communication device 110 may be a fiber collimator, the firstoptical fiber 200 may be an input fiber, the secondoptical fiber 300 may be an output fiber, and the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 are respectively connected to the opticalfiber communication device 110. Theimage acquisition device 130 acquires the outline image of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110, so that the extraction of the image edge is easier. By extracting the contour images of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 in at least two different directions, performing feature extraction on the contour images in the two directions in theprocessing device 120 through a computer program, and then obtaining an analysis result through analysis, theprocessing device 120 controls the action of thecontrol device 140 according to the analysis result, so that thecontrol device 140 drives the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 to move in different directions, thereby enabling the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 to realize coarse alignment of coupling. When theprocessing device 120 receives the optical signal of the firstoptical fiber 200 or the secondoptical fiber 300, theprocessing device 120 processes the optical signal to obtain a processing result, and theprocessing device 120 further performs fine alignment on the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 based on the coarse alignment according to the processing result. Thus, self-aligned coupling to the optical fiber can be achieved in two steps.

Example 2

As shown in fig. 3, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus 100. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

the optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus 100 further includes: the opticalpower measuring device 150 is disposed between theprocessing device 120 and the firstoptical fiber 200 or the secondoptical fiber 300, and the opticalpower measuring device 150 is used for measuring the optical power and transmitting the optical power to theprocessing device 120.

In this embodiment, when the firstoptical fiber 200 is used as an input optical fiber to input an optical signal into the firstoptical fiber 200, and the secondoptical fiber 300 is used as an output optical fiber to emit laser light as input light into the firstoptical fiber 200 through a laser, the laser is connected to the firstoptical fiber 200 to directly couple red light into the firstoptical fiber 200, an FC interface (an interface standard form of optical fiber butt joint) of the secondoptical fiber 300 is connected to the opticalpower measuring device 150, the opticalpower measuring device 150 may be an optical power meter to measure received infrared light wavelength and infrared light power value in real time and send the measured infrared light wavelength and infrared light power value to theprocessing device 120, theprocessing device 120 sends a driving signal to thecontrol device 140 according to the optical power value measured by the optical power meter in real time and based on the optical power value detected in the coarse tuning stage, thecontrol device 140 sequentially adjusts the position of the maximum coupling ratio of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 in different directions according, at this time, the position of maximum coupling ratio is the best position for aligning and coupling the optical fiber.

Example 3

As shown in fig. 4, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

theimage pickup device 130 includes: a firstimage capturing element 132 and a secondimage capturing element 134, wherein the firstimage capturing element 132 is disposed in the first direction X, and the firstimage capturing element 132 is connected to theprocessing device 120. The secondimage capturing element 134 is disposed in the second direction Z, and the firstimage capturing element 132 is connected to theprocessing device 120. The firstimage capturing element 132 and the secondimage capturing element 134 are respectively used for capturing the profile image of the opticalfiber communication device 110.

In this embodiment, the firstimage capturing element 132 and the secondimage capturing element 134 may be cameras capable of converting an optical image into a digital signal, such as a Charge Coupled Device (CCD), the CCD camera ZE may be called a CCD image sensor, and the CCD is a semiconductor Device capable of converting an optical image into a digital signal. On the X coordinate of the coordinate system, the X coordinate is a first direction X, the Z coordinate is a second direction Z, and the Y coordinate is a third direction Y. The first direction X is used for arranging the firstimage capturing element 132 and may be used as the second direction Z for arranging the secondimage capturing element 134 in the Z-coordinate of the coordinate system. The firstimage capturing element 132 and the secondimage capturing element 134 capture the image of the profile of the opticalfiber communication device 110 in two directions, respectively, to obtain profile images, respectively. In order to allow the firstimage pickup element 132 to pick up a sharp contour image, a first light source is disposed in the first direction X, the first light source being disposed coaxially with the firstimage pickup element 132. Likewise, in order to allow the secondimage pickup element 134 to pick up a sharp contour image, a second light source is provided in the second direction Z, the second light source being provided coaxially with the secondimage pickup element 134. The firstimage capturing element 132 and the secondimage capturing element 134 convert the respectively captured contour images into digital signals and transmit the digital signals to theprocessing device 120 for image processing.

Example 4

As shown in fig. 5 and 7, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

thecontrol device 140 includes: afirst control component 142 and asecond control component 144, wherein thefirst control component 142 is connected with the opticalfiber communication device 110 and theprocessing device 120 respectively. Thesecond control assembly 144 is connected to the opticalfiber communication device 110 and theprocessing device 120. Thecontroller 146 is connected to the first and

second control assemblies

142 and 144, respectively.

In this embodiment, thefirst control component 142 and thesecond control component 144 are respectively connected to the opticalfiber communication device 110, and thefirst control component 142 is used for adjusting the displacement of the opticalfiber communication device 110, so as to achieve the purpose of performing coarse adjustment on the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300. Thesecond control component 144 is used to adjust the rotation angle of the opticalfiber communication device 110 to achieve fine adjustment of the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300, so that the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 can be automatically coupled and aligned. Wherein thecontroller 146 sends signals to the first and

second control components

142 and 144, respectively. Thecontroller 146 may be a seven-axis motor controller, which is a motor controller and can control a motor to drive thefirst control component 142 to generate displacement changes in different directions, or the seven-axis motor controller drives thesecond control component 144 to generate rotation angle changes, so as to control the movement or rotation of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 and achieve the purpose of adjusting the alignment coupling between the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300.

Example 5

As shown in fig. 2, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus 100. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

thefirst control assembly 142 includes: afirst clamp 1422 and afirst trimming bracket 1424, wherein thefirst clamp 1422 is connected to the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110. Thefirst trimming frame 1424 is connected to thefirst clamp 1422 and thecontroller 146, respectively, and thefirst trimming frame 1424 is used for adjusting the displacement of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110.

In this embodiment, thefirst fixture 1422 is a special fixture, and thefirst trimming rack 1424 is a three-dimensional high-precision electronic control trimming rack, and can be displaced in three directions of an X axis, a Y axis, and a Z axis of coordinate axes. Thefirst trimming frame 1424 is controlled by thecontroller 146 to perform displacement adjustment on the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 in three directions, so as to achieve the purpose of performing coarse adjustment on the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300.

Example 6

thesecond control assembly 144 includes: asecond clamp 1442 and a secondfine tuning bracket 1444, wherein thesecond clamp 1442 is connected with the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110. The secondfine tuning bracket 1444 is connected to thesecond holder 1442 and thecontroller 146, and the secondfine tuning bracket 1444 is used for adjusting the rotation angle of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110.

In this embodiment, thesecond fixture 1442 is a special fixture, and the secondfine adjustment frame 1444 is a two-dimensional high-precision electronic control fine adjustment frame, and can rotate in a two-dimensional angle. The secondfine tuning frame 1444 is controlled by thecontroller 146 to control the rotation angle of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110, and the position of the maximum coupling ratio is found after the diameter of the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 is sequentially swung according to the single degree of freedom corresponding to the radian, and at this time, the optical fiber is aligned to the optimal coupling position, so that the purpose of fine tuning the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 is achieved.

Example 7

As shown in fig. 6, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

the optical fiber auto-coupling alignment apparatus 100 further includes: an opticalanti-shock platform 160. At least a portion of thecontrol device 140 is disposed on theoptical anti-vibration platform 160.

In this embodiment, theoptical shock platform 160 is used for mounting a rail, and thefirst trimming rack 1424 of thecontrol device 140 is disposed on the rail and can move along the rail under the control of thecontroller 146. A secondfine adjustment bracket 1444 of thecontrol device 140 is installed on the track and can rotate at an angle under the control of thecontroller 146. Theoptical anti-vibration platform 160 can reduce vibration generated during rotation of thesecond trimming stage 1444 or during movement of thefirst trimming stage 1424, thereby ensuring efficiency and accuracy of coupling alignment of the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300.

Example 8

As shown in fig. 11, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber automatic coupling alignment method, using the optical fiber automaticcoupling alignment apparatus 100 of any embodiment, the optical fiber automatic coupling alignment method includes:

step S102: and respectively collecting the outline images of the optical fiber communication optical device in at least two directions.

Step S104: and processing the outline image to obtain a first processing result.

Step S106: and carrying out displacement adjustment on the optical fiber communication optical device according to the first processing result.

Step S108: and processing the light source signal output by the optical fiber to obtain a second processing result.

Step S110: and adjusting the angle of the optical fiber communication optical device according to the second processing result.

In this embodiment, the contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device are collected in at least two directions, and the contour images of the optical fiber communication optical device in the two directions are compared and the like to obtain a first processing result, so that the optical fiber communication optical device can be subjected to displacement adjustment according to the first processing result. The light source signal output by the optical fiber is processed to obtain a second processing result, and the angle of the optical fiber communication optical device is processed according to the second processing result, so that the aim of aligning and coupling the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300 is fulfilled.

Example 9

As shown in fig. 12, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment method. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

processing the outline image to obtain a first processing result, specifically comprising:

step S202: and respectively carrying out Gaussian blur and then downsampling on the contour images in at least two directions.

Step S204: and extracting the edge characteristics of the contour image according to a Gaussian pyramid algorithm.

Step S206: and calculating relative deviation according to the edge characteristics and correcting the deviation.

Step S208: and calculating the position coordinates of the edge features parallel to each other after correcting the deviation.

Step S210: and obtaining a first processing result according to the position coordinates.

In this embodiment, it can be known from the principle of pinhole imaging that the sampling pattern effect of the optical fiber collimators of the same specification is different under the condition of different distance angles, the proximal part is larger, the distal part is smaller, the proximal part can know the detailed information of the image, and the distal part can see the information of the outline of the image, that is, another dimension naturally existing in the image is added on the basis of the two-dimensional image: and (4) dimension. Since the gaussian kernel is the only linear kernel, that is, using the gaussian kernel to blur the image does not introduce other noise. Therefore, in the embodiment, a gaussian kernel is selected to construct the scale of the contour image. Thepyramid 500 of an image is a series of image sets with progressively lower resolutions arranged in a pyramid shape and derived from the same original image, as shown in fig. 13.Pyramid 500 may be obtained by down-sampling in steps until some termination condition is reached. The bottom of thepyramid 500 is a high resolution representation of the image to be processed, while the top is an approximation of the low resolution. We compare the images one level at a time to thepyramid 500, with the higher the level, the smaller the image and the lower the resolution. The Laplacian pyramid is used for reconstructing an upper-layer non-sampled image from a pyramid lower-layer image, namely a prediction residual error in digital image processing, and can restore a contour image to the maximum extent and be used together with the Gaussian pyramid. As shown in FIG. 14, the algorithm using the Gaussian blur post-down-sampling can extract the contour recognition of the fiber collimator, which is a target object far from and near to different objects on the same picture.

As shown in fig. 15, the gradient search is a one-dimensional search method, while the optical fiber alignment requires adjustment of multiple degrees of freedom, the hill-climbing method completes multi-axis alignment through single-degree-of-freedom alternate circulation, the alignment time increases with the increase of the degrees of freedom, and the search time is longer because the number of sampling points is larger. In fact, due to the influence of the straightness and the verticality of the platform, cross coupling inevitably exists in each motion direction during alignment, that is, the motion in one direction may cause slight change in the other direction, the gradient search realizes multi-degree-of-freedom search through the principle of variable rotation, and cannot overcome the interaction influence between variables in each direction, for example, in fig. 16, when two variables of a horizontal axis and a vertical axis have certain interaction, acontour line 400 is not circular, the search between two degrees of freedom will be repeated for many times, and when the interaction influence between the two variables is large, a local maximum point such as a ridge line in fig. 17 will be generated. In actual operation, the method is an irregular function, the influence of multi-degree-of-freedom cross coupling is difficult to overcome by gradient search, and the search target cannot be reached due to local maximum.

Based on the analysis, the edge features of the contour image are extracted by adopting a Gaussian pyramid algorithm, the relative deviation is calculated and the deviation is corrected according to the edge features, then the position coordinates of the edge features which are parallel to each other after the deviation is corrected are calculated, and then the first processing result is obtained according to the position coordinates. In this embodiment, on the coordinate axis, the position of the maximum coupling ratio can be found after the optical fiber collimator diameter corresponding radian is sequentially swung according to the single degree of freedom in the rotation direction of the θ X and the θ Y after the rough adjustment is based. θ X is the first rotational direction and θ Y is the second rotational direction. That is, on the basis of the coarse adjustment position, the secondfine adjustment bracket 1444 swings in the first rotation direction at the moment, the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator is stored, the optical power meter values swinging in real time are stored as an array, and the maximum value of the optical power meter values is searched after the swinging is completed. The corresponding position is the maximum optical coupling position in the first rotation direction. Then, the secondfine tuning frame 1444 swings in the second rotation direction, the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator at the moment is stored, the real-time swinging optical power meter value is stored as an array, and the maximum value of the optical power meter value is searched after the swing is completed. The corresponding position is the maximum optical coupling position in the second rotation direction.

Example 10

As shown in fig. 18, the present embodiment provides an optical fiber auto-coupling alignment method. In addition to the technical features of the above embodiment, the present embodiment further includes the following technical features:

processing the light source signal output by the optical fiber to obtain a second processing result, specifically comprising:

step S302: and monitoring the measured value of the optical power measuring device in real time.

Step S304: and the optical fiber communication optical device is subjected to displacement adjustment to detect the optical power value.

Step S306: and obtaining a second processing result according to the measured value and the optical power value of the optical power measuring device.

In this embodiment, the optical power value is measured in real time by an optical power meter. By monitoring the optical power value in real time and taking the optical power value detected in the coarse adjustment stage as a reference, taking the theta X as a first rotating direction and taking the theta Y as a second rotating direction, sequentially swinging the optical fiber collimator according to the single degree of freedom and the diameter corresponding to the radian, and then searching the position of the maximum coupling rate, namely the optimal coupling position of the optical fiber alignment.

Example 11

As shown in fig. 3 and fig. 19, the present embodiment provides an automatic fiber coupling alignment apparatus and method based on image processing, which mainly comprises two parts, namely a hardware system and a software system. The hardware system mainly comprises aprocessing device 120, an optical fiber communicationoptical device 110, a firstfine adjustment frame 1424, afirst clamp 1422, a secondfine adjustment frame 1444, asecond clamp 1442, animage acquisition device 130, acontroller 146, a light source and measurement system, an opticalshockproof platform 160, and the like. Theprocessing device 120 is a computer control part, the optical fiber communicationoptical device 110 is an optical fiber collimator, the firstfine tuning frame 1424 and the secondfine tuning frame 1444 are seven-dimensional high-precision electric control fine tuning frames, theimage acquisition device 130 is an XZ axis machine vision observation system, and thecontroller 146 is a seven-axis motor controller. The software system is composed of amotion control module 122, an image recognition andprocessing module 126, an algorithm processing module and adisplay processing module 124, etc., wherein the algorithm processing module includes a coarsescanning algorithm module 128 and a finescanning algorithm module 1210. Thedisplay processing module 124 is connected to adisplay 180.

As shown in fig. 5 and 6, the seven-dimensional high-precision electronic fine adjustment frame includes an electric linear guide, an XY two-dimensional electric displacement table, a Z-axis electric displacement table, and a two-dimensional electric angular displacement table, the XY two-dimensional electric displacement table and the Z-axis electric displacement table constitute a firstfine adjustment frame 1424, and the firstfine adjustment frame 1424 is a seven-dimensional electric displacement table. Thefirst clamp 1422 and thesecond clamp 1442 are fiber clamps, respectively. The light source and the measuring system are light power induction modules, and each light power induction module comprises a white light annular light source, a laser and a light power meter. The white light annular light sources are respectively arranged in the X-axis direction and the Z-axis direction, and the CCD cameras are respectively arranged in the X-axis direction and the Z-axis direction. Theimage acquisition device 130 acquires a clearly imaged side view profile image and a clearly imaged top view profile image in real time by a white light source and a CCD camera in the X-axis direction and the Z-axis direction, and theprocessing device 120 performs edge feature extraction on the profile images and calculates a relative deviation through the image recognition andprocessing module 126. The optical power meter detects the output end of the optical fiber in real time, and the motion control part comprises a seven-dimensional electric displacement table, a seven-axis motor controller and an optical fiber clamp. The image recognition andprocessing module 126 and the optical power sensing module determine real-time data to align the position control machine to operate so as to realize high-precision automatic alignment coupling of the firstoptical fiber 200 and the secondoptical fiber 300, theprocessing device 120 is a human-computer interaction module and comprises a PC (personal computer) end, a mouse and a keyboard, the experiment PC end is loaded with Halcon software and Visual Studio software, and the Halcon and C # combined programming is adopted for secondary development.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, the light transmitted in the optical fiber has a certain scattering angle, i.e., the direct coupling efficiency is low. The self-focusing lens fiber collimator shown in fig. 8 expands the light beam in the fiber through the self-focusing lens, and the collimation degree is high. As shown in fig. 10, which is a schematic view of a fiber collimator type fiber coupling, the self-focusing lens of the fiber collimator includes a first 1/4 pitch self-focusinglens 112 and a second 1/4 pitch self-focusinglens 114. The light beam emitted from the input optical fiber is changed into parallel light beam after passing through the self-focusing lens, the parallel light beam is coupled into the corresponding self-focusing lens (high stability, high reliability and small light beam divergence angle), and the light signal is coupled into the optical fiber by the self-focusing lens. However, systems in which the self-focusing lens couples optical signals are less sensitive to axial errors and off-axis variations than systems in which the optical fiber couples the optical signals directly to the optical fiber. At this point, the use of coarse image adjustment avoids the need for sensitivity to axial and off-axis errors.

As shown in fig. 13 and 14, according to the principle of pinhole imaging, the sampled graphic effects of the optical fiber collimators of the same specification are different under different angles, the proximal part is larger, the distal part is smaller, the proximal part can know the detailed information of the image, and the distal part can see the information of the outline of the image, that is, another dimension naturally existing in the image is added on the basis of the two-dimensional image: and (4) dimension. Because the gaussian kernel is the only linear kernel, that is, no other noise is introduced by using the gaussian kernel to blur the image, the gaussian kernel is selected to construct the scale of the image. A pyramid of an image is a series of image sets of progressively lower resolution arranged in a pyramid shape and derived from the same original image. Which may be obtained by down-sampling in steps, until a certain termination condition is reached. The bottom of the pyramid is a high resolution representation of the image to be processed, while the top is an approximation of the low resolution. We compare the images one level at a time to a pyramid (as shown in fig. 13), with the higher the level, the smaller the image and the lower the resolution. The laplacian pyramid (as shown in fig. 14) is used to reconstruct an upper-layer non-sampled image from a lower-layer image of the pyramid, i.e., to predict a residual error in digital image processing, and the image can be restored to the maximum extent and used together with the laplacian pyramid. Therefore, the contour identification of the collimator of the target object with different distances on the same picture can be extracted by using the algorithm of Gaussian blur post-down sampling.

As shown in fig. 15, the gradient search is a one-dimensional search method, while the optical fiber alignment requires adjustment of multiple degrees of freedom, the hill-climbing method completes multi-axis alignment through single-degree-of-freedom alternate circulation, the alignment time increases with the increase of the degrees of freedom, and the search time is longer because the number of sampling points is larger. In fact, due to the influence of the straightness and the verticality of the platform, cross coupling inevitably exists in each motion direction during alignment, that is, the motion in one direction may cause slight change in the other direction, the gradient search realizes multi-degree-of-freedom search through the principle of variable rotation, and cannot overcome the interaction influence between variables in each direction, for example, in fig. 15, a certain interaction exists between two variables of a horizontal axis and a vertical axis, acontour line 400 is not circular, the search between two degrees of freedom will be repeated for many times, and when the interaction influence between the two variables is large, a local maximum point such as a ridge line in fig. 16 will appear. In actual operation, the method is an irregular function, the influence of multi-degree-of-freedom cross coupling is difficult to overcome by gradient search, and the search target cannot be reached due to local maximum.

Based on the analysis, the edge features of the contour image are extracted by adopting a Gaussian pyramid algorithm, the relative deviation is calculated and the deviation is corrected according to the edge features, then the position coordinates of the edge features which are parallel to each other after the deviation is corrected are calculated, and then the first processing result is obtained according to the position coordinates. In this embodiment, on the coordinate axis, the maximum coupling ratio position may be found after sequentially swinging the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator based on the single degrees of freedom θ X and θ Y after the coarse adjustment, that is, on the basis of the coarse adjustment position, the secondfine adjustment bracket 1444 swings in the direction θ X at this time, the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator is stored as an array, and the maximum value of the optical power meter is found after the swing is completed. The corresponding position is the position where the optical coupling is maximum in the direction of thetax. Then the secondfine tuning frame 1444 swings in the θ Y direction, the radian corresponding to the diameter of the optical fiber collimator at this time is stored, the real-time swinging optical power meter value is stored as an array, and the maximum value of the optical power meter value is searched after the swinging is completed. The corresponding position is the position where the optical coupling is maximum in the theta Y direction.

As shown in fig. 3 and 19, an automatic alignment method of optical fibers based on image processing includes the following steps:

a coarse adjustment stage:

step S402: and shooting left and right target position images to a PC end in the view of the XZ axis camera.

The first group of CCD cameras are vertically fixed above the coupling position of the optical fiber collimator and the optical fiber collimator in the Z-axis direction, the white light annular light source is fixed below the cameras to illuminate the coupling position, the second group of CCD cameras are horizontally fixed in front of the coupling position of the optical fiber collimator and the optical fiber collimator in the X-axis direction, and the white light annular light source is fixed below the cameras to illuminate the coupling position. And the two sets of CCD cameras of the XZ axis acquire images in a visual field in real time and transmit the images to the PC end.

Step S404: and the PC end performs image processing to obtain the coordinates of the left target position and the right target position.

And the PC end extracts the edge characteristics of the optical fiber collimator in the image through image processing, calculates the relative deviation (stopping when the relative deviation is 0), and corrects the deviation through an algorithm to calculate the position coordinate enabling the edge characteristics to be parallel.

Step S406: and judging whether the target position coordinates are parallel or not.

Step S408: if the structure is judged to be negative, the seven-axis controller controls the fine adjustment frame to roughly align the left target and the right target, and the operation returns to the step S404.

The PC end controls the left and right fine adjustment frames to adjust for multiple times through the seven-axis motor controller to achieve corrected position coordinates to finish coarse adjustment.

Step S410: and if the judgment result is yes, the PC end reads the optical power meter value.

Step S412: and judging whether the optical power meter value is maximum.

And if the judgment result is yes, ending.

Step S414: if not, controlling the two-dimensional angular displacement table to be precisely aligned, and returning to the step S410.

And (3) fine adjustment stage: thelaser 170 is connected to the firstoptical fiber 200, and directly couples the red light into the firstoptical fiber 200, and the FC interface of the secondoptical fiber 300 is connected to the optical power to measure the received infrared light wavelength and infrared light power value in real time and send the infrared light wavelength and infrared light power value to the PC.

The PC end controls the two-dimensional angular displacement fine adjustment frame to carry out fine adjustment through the seven-axis motor controller, the optical power value is monitored in real time, the optical power value detected in the coarse adjustment stage is taken as a reference, theta X and theta Y single-degree-of-freedom degrees, the collimator diameter corresponding radian is sequentially swung, and then the position of the maximum coupling rate is found, and at the moment, the position is the optimal optical fiber alignment coupling position.

In embodiments according to the present invention, the terms "first", "second", "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance; the term "plurality" means two or more unless expressly limited otherwise. The terms "mounted," "connected," "fixed," and the like are to be construed broadly, and for example, "connected" may be a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; "coupled" may be direct or indirect through an intermediary. Specific meanings of the above terms in the embodiments according to the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to specific situations.

In the description of the embodiments according to the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "front", "rear", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, only for convenience of description and simplification of description of the embodiments according to the present invention, and do not indicate or imply that the referred devices or units must have a specific direction, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the embodiments according to the present invention.

In the description herein, the description of the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "specific embodiments," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of an embodiment according to the invention. In this specification, the schematic representations of the terms used above do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

The above is only a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, and is not intended to limit the embodiment according to the present invention, and various modifications and variations may be made to the embodiment according to the present invention by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the embodiment according to the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the embodiment according to the present invention.