Fibre-optic and photonics sensor technology were hot topics at an international event held in Brisbane, writes Saiied Aminossadati.
The 2nd international Fibre-optic and Photonic Sensors for Industrial and Safety Applications Conference (OFSIS2017) recently welcomed experts in fibre-optic and photonics sensors from around the world.
The event hosted by The University of Queensland was held on 8-10 January 2017 at the University of Queensland.
The conference provided a unique interactive platform for the research and industrial communities to discuss the fibre-optic and photonic sensing technology, their laboratories and field trials, and new insights into their advanced manufacturing techniques and applications.
Areas discussed throughout the conference included:
- fibre-optic sensing technologies
- distributed sensing systems
- environmental monitoring
- safety in industry: Mining, oil and gas, food, defence, nuclear power
- public safety
- intelligent safety instruments
- biomedical and medicine
“The conference saw four plenary sessions, 25 keynote, 16 technical and over 30 poster presentations to more than 150 delegates from more than 10 countries across academia and industry. The conference was technically sponsored by IEEE Photonics Society” conference chair Dr Saiied Aminossadati says.
Papers selected to feature at the conference have been published by Measurement and IEEE Xplore after a rigorous peer-review process.
Advancements ranked high on the agenda
The plenary session focused on advancement in fibre optic and photonic sensors. Professor Kenneth Grattan from George Daniels Professor of Scientific Instrumentation, City, University of London was the first plenary speaker. He says fibre-optic sensors have been developed extensively over the last thirty years.
However, in recent years, important applications of these systems have been developed to meet a range of challenging industrial applications. Civil and structural engineering industries have been aware of the need for better monitoring of the multi-billion-dollar civil infrastructure, whether it be bridges, buildings, towers or other critical parts of what makes modern towns and cities function well.
Gadgets adapt to different environments
Professor Benjamin Eggleton from the Australian Centre for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems presented the development of integrated devices, consisting of chip-scale electronics possessors, optoelectronic devices and on-chip acoustic devices, that sense, analyse, respond to, and manipulate their environment.
Professor Yun-Jiang Rao from the Key Laboratory of Optical Fibre Sensing and Communications in China discussed recent progress in fibre-optic sensors for industrial and safety applications. He reviewed sensing systems for high-temperature strain sensing and pressure measurements, and distributed fibre-optic sensing systems for long distance remote strain/temperature/vibration measurements.
Finally, Professor Perry Ping Shum from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore discussed the advantages of fibre-optic sensors such as light weight, immunity to radio frequency interference and electromagnetic interference, high sensitivity, compact size, corrosion resistance, easily multiplexing and potentially low cost.
Event creates discussion on research
The conference also included an industry-research discussion panel session that focused on opportunities and challenges for the development and utilisation of fibre-optic and photonic sensors in various industrial applications.
The session was chaired by Dr Jeremy Davies and leaders of various research centres and industries including geotechnical engineering, mining and oil and gas (UQ, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, China National Petroleum Corporation, Emtek, Insulect Australia, METS Ignited) as well as original equipment manufacturers (Joy Global, Yokogawa, AP Sensing, Micron Optics), and world experts from fibre-optic and photonic sensing research centres participated in this session.
Conference secretary Moe Amanzadeh says the panel discussion looked into the status of fibre-optic and photonic sensing technology in all industrial applications and identify the opportunities and challenges for it use in mining industry.
Written By Saiied Aminossadati – University Of Queensland, Senior Lecturer
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