Experimental Studies of a Shadow Optical Sensor of Linear Dimensions and Displacements Based on a Charge-Coupled Device Photodetector

The article is devoted to experimental studies of a shadow optical sensor of linear dimensions and displacements based on a charge-coupled device photodetector. The article discusses the requirements for the characteristics of the sensor, its design and software and algorithmic support. The sensor discussed in the article is a shadow sensor. In this type of sensor, information about the size of the object and the amount of its movement is contained in the size of the shadow displayed by the part located in the beam of a laser or other emitter. To experimentally evaluate the capabilities of this sensor, its prototype was made from ready-made elements. A study was conducted of the operation of the sensor, implemented on a ready-made CCD module of the TSL1401 line, in conjunction with an STM 32f103c8t6 microcontroller. Due to the insufficient computing power of the controller, the operation of the sensor was divided into 2 stages: accumulation of the number of frames required to determine the frequency at the maximum available frequency and processing of the accumulated data, while stopping the reading of subsequent frames. Isolation of object boundaries occurs using a threshold method, which allows you to divide pixels into two classes. After the operation of determining the boundaries, an array of frames is formed, which is necessary for further determining the oscillation frequency of the object. The linear zone of the sensor is 8 mm, the maximum operating frequency is 4.5 kHz.