EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Title of Project
Helios : A control system for a laser Doppler beam.
Objectives
Create a graphical user interface control system that will issue discrete control to deviate
a laser Doppler beam onto a specific target.

Which aspects of the project are new/unique?

The Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) is not mounted on a gantry system; rather the LDV
is stationary and the beam is to be deflected via Risley prism pair. Control will be issued
via an image recognition, closed feedback discrete control loop.
What are the (expected) findings?
The processing will be done by a desktop computer so an intelligent developed program
will be able to perform rapid and accurate tracking.

What value do the results have?

The results substitute the role of a specialist to align the beam and promote the use of
the developing LDV technology as an attractive method of measuring heart and lung
sounds as done in electrocardiographs.
If more than one student is involved, what is my contribution?
n/a
Which aspects of the project will carry on after completion?
A promising upgrade will be to link this to other field applications, like network controlled,
high-precision surgery or even stationary laser cutting.

What are the expected advantages of continuation?

Through tight refinement, the concept will prove itself as an attractive application.

What arrangements have been made to expedite continuation?

n/a

3
 Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic
Engineering
Stellenbosch University

Declaration

I know that plagiarism is wrong.

Plagiarism is to use another's work (even if it is summarised, translated or

rephrased) and pretend that it is one's own.

This assignment is my own work.

Each contribution to and quotation (e.g. "cut and paste") in this assignment
from the work(s) of other people has been explicitly attributed, and has been
cited and referenced. In addition to being explicitly attributed, all quotations
are enclosed in inverted commas, and long quotations are additionally in
indented paragraphs.

I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to use my work (in paper,
graphics, electronic, verbal or any other format) with the intention of passing it
off as his/her own work.

I know that a mark of zero may be awarded to assignments with plagiarism

and also that no opportunity be given to submit an improved assignment.

I know that students involved in plagiarism will be reported to the Registrar

and/or the Central Disciplinary Committee.

Name: ..................................................

Student no: ..................................................

Signature: ..................................................

Date: ..................................................

4
ESCA OUTCOMES

ECSA Outcomes Assessed in this Module

Outcome Addressed in sections
1. Problem solving: Demonstrate competence to identify, 2; 3; 5; 6;
assess, formulate and solve convergent and divergent
engineering problems creatively and innovatively.
2. Application of scientific and engineering knowledge: 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; Appendix B;
Demonstrate competence to apply knowledge of Appendix C; Appendix E;

mathematics, basic science and engineering sciences from

first principles to solve engineering problems.
3. Engineering Design: Demonstrate competence to 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; Appendix D;
perform creative, procedural and non-procedural design Appendix E;

and synthesis of components, systems, engineering works,

products or processes.
5. Engineering methods, skills and tools, including 7; 8; 9; 10; Appendix A;
Information Technology: Demonstrate competence to use
appropriate engineering methods, skills and tools,
including those based on information technology.
6: Professional and technical communication: Project Proposal; Progress
Demonstrate competence to communicate effectively, both Report; Preliminary Draft;

orally and in writing, with engineering audiences and the Final Report; Oral
Presentation, Project
community at large.
Poster
8. Individual, team and multi-disciplinary working: 4; 9;
Demonstrate competence to work effectively as an
individual, in teams and in multi-disciplinary
environments.
9: Independent learning ability: Demonstrate 4; 5; References
competence to engage in independent learning through
well-developed learning skills.

5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author thanks Professor Cornie Scheffer for his guidance in supervising this project and
Ockert Kritzinger for his practicality and knowledge in mechanical design.

The personnel of SMD, especially C. Zietsman and F. Zietsman are thanked for their inputs with
respect to the machining of the final design conponents.

7
TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... 3

ESCA OUTCOMES .................................................................................................................. 5

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ 7

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 10

LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................. 11

LIST OF SYMBOLS ............................................................................................................... 13

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 15

2. OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................................... 15

3. MOTIVATION ..................................................................................................................... 16

4. PROJECT ACTIVITIES ....................................................................................................... 17

5. LITERATURE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................. 18

6. RISLEY BEAM POINTER ................................................................................................... 21

7. RISLEY PAIR CALCULATIONS.......................................................................................... 22

8. HARDWARE ....................................................................................................................... 25

8.1 Controller and Steppers ............................................................................................... 25

8.2 Prism Chamber ............................................................................................................ 27

8.3 Camera ........................................................................................................................ 29

9. DRIVING PROGRAM.......................................................................................................... 30

9.1 Image Recognition ....................................................................................................... 30

9.2 Discrete Control ........................................................................................................... 32

9.3 Graphical User Interface .............................................................................................. 36

10. PSEUDO VELOCITY....................................................................................................... 40

10.1 Theoretical modeling ................................................................................................ 40

10.2 Concept testing ........................................................................................................ 42

11. SAFETY .......................................................................................................................... 46

8
12. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 47

13. RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................... 48

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 49

APPENDIX A : TECHNO-ECONOMICS ANALYSIS .................................................................. 50

APPENDIX B : TRANSFORM METHODOLOGY ....................................................................... 52

APPENDIX C : RISLEY DEVIATION.......................................................................................... 57

APPENDIX D : HARDWARE CATALOGUE ............................................................................... 58

D.1 VibroMet 500V ............................................................................................................. 58

D.2 SKF 16006Z................................................................................................................. 59

D.3 16 Hybrid Stepper Motor .............................................................................................. 60

D.4 Synchroflex Timing Pulleys T5 ..................................................................................... 61

D.5 Logitech Webcam C500 ............................................................................................... 62

APPENDIX E : MECHANICAL DRAWING PACK ....................................................................... 63

E.1 10T5 ............................................................................................................................ 63

E.2 Prism Bushing .............................................................................................................. 64

E.3 Enter Chamber ............................................................................................................ 65

E.4 Enter Plate ................................................................................................................... 66

E.5 Exit Chamber ............................................................................................................... 67

E.6 Exit Plate ..................................................................................................................... 68

E.7 Laser Insert .................................................................................................................. 69

E.8 Assembled Helios ........................................................................................................ 70

9
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Offset tests .................................................................................................................. 40

Table 2 : XRMS.......................................................................................................................... 45

Table 3 : Capital expansion ........................................................................................................ 51

10
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 : Medical LDV application [Hong, HyunDae, Fox, Martin (1997 : 11)] ........................... 18

Figure 2 : Principle of how a LDV works [Hong, HyunDae, Fox, Martin (1997 : 15)] ................... 18

Figure 3 : MetroLaser VibroMet 500V [VibroMet™ 500V Laser Doppler Vibrometer, (S.a)] ........ 19

Figure 4 : Gear differential design .............................................................................................. 20

Figure 5 : Section of RBP [Ostaszewski, (2006:3)] ..................................................................... 21

Figure 6 : Scale of RBP [Ostaszewski (2006:9)] ......................................................................... 21

Figure 7 : Mathematical simplification ........................................................................................ 22

Figure 8 : Prism pair simulation .................................................................................................. 23

Figure 9 : Laser locus................................................................................................................. 24

Figure 10 : BS0710 – USB [Size 16 hybrid stepper motor (S.a)] ................................................ 25

Figure 11 : 16 HS Hybrid stepper [Size 16 hybrid stepper motor (S.a)] ...................................... 25

Figure 12 : Hardware interlinks .................................................................................................. 26

Figure 13 : Section of prism chamber ......................................................................................... 27

Figure 14 : Assembled Helios design ......................................................................................... 28

Figure 15 : Isotropic views of expanded prism chambers ........................................................... 28

Figure 16 : Logitech C500 Webcam [Logitech webcam sale C500 (S.a)] ................................... 29

Figure 17 : Program logic ........................................................................................................... 30

Figure 18 : HSL dimension[Colorbudz (S.a)] .............................................................................. 30

Figure 19 : HSL histogram matching .......................................................................................... 31

Figure 20 : Tracking parameters ................................................................................................ 33

Figure 21 : Phase difference ...................................................................................................... 34

Figure 22 : Angular discrete control............................................................................................ 35

Figure 23 : Radial discrete control .............................................................................................. 36

Figure 24 : Settings file .............................................................................................................. 36

11
Figure 25 : Graphical user interface ........................................................................................... 37

Figure 26 : Phases of the program ............................................................................................. 39

Figure 27 : Pseudo concept ....................................................................................................... 40

Figure 28 : Correction factors ..................................................................................................... 41

Figure 29 : Experimental setup .................................................................................................. 43

Figure 30 : Experiment data ....................................................................................................... 44

Figure 31 : Direct VS Helios measurements ............................................................................... 45

Figure 32 : Laser hazard safety sign[Oxford Physics (S.a)] ........................................................ 46

Figure 33 : Helios schedule ........................................................................................................ 50

Figure 34 : Helios expenses ....................................................................................................... 50

Figure 35 : Coordinate system ................................................................................................... 52

Figure 36 : Prism refraction ........................................................................................................ 54

Figure 37 : Curve fitting .............................................................................................................. 57

12
LIST OF SYMBOLS

x horizontal pixel coordinate [px]

y vertical pixel coordinate [px]

r radius of pixels [px]

α angular offset of exit prism [rad]

β angular offset of enter prism [rad]

Rmax maximum calibrated radius of cover [px,m]

θ risley prism wedge angle [rad]

range distance from prism chamber to target plane [m]

ܺത weighted horizontal average [px]

ܻത weighted vertical average [px]

N pixel counter [-]

rX stepper X step rate [μ-steps/s]

rY stepper Y step rate [μ-steps/s]

Kp proportional constant [-]

Msec period of discrete controller [ms]

ߠܶܽ‫ݐ݁݃ݎ‬ reference angle of target point [rad]

ߠ‫ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬ reference angle of chaser point [rad]

ܴܶܽ‫ݐ݁݃ݎ‬ reference radius of target point [px]

ܴ‫ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬ reference radius of chaser point [px]

ܸ݉݁ܽ‫݀݁ݎݑݏ‬ velocity registered by LDV [m/s]

ܸ‫݁ݑݎݐ‬ true velocity of vibration [m/s]

13
ܺ measure parameter [-]

ܶ period of signal [s]

ܰ total number of logged data points [-]

14
1. INTRODUCTION

This project entails the development of a mechanism that will issue discrete control via image
recognition to align the laser Doppler beam of a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). This in turn will
make the mechanism a suitable concept to explore and upgrade as an alternative to
electrocardiographs (ECG) as well as to use the concept in numerous biomedical applications for
example deviating a stationary laser in laser cutting surgery.

This document explains the project’s objectives, motivation and planning. It further gives a
detailed mechanical concept design as well as the program algorithm to issue control via image
recognition. The project baselines as well as the accumulated expenses are outlined in the
techno-economic analysis found in Appendix A.

This project is Mr. AD Swart’s Mechanical Project 418. The project stems from the proposal by
Prof. C Scheffer as part of the biomechanical engineering research group (BERG). The project
forms part of a bigger project aimed at the application of biomechanical engineering and is
funded by the BERG.

2. OBJECTIVES

As mentioned above, the primary objective of this project is aimed at discrete control via image
recognition to align a laser Doppler beam. The secondary objectives of the project are as follows:

2.1 To design a system that is user-friendly in that the system directly connects to the
computer via a Universal Serial Bus (USB) cable.

2.2 The developed device must reposition the laser beam very accurately and rapidly.

2.3 To program the controller in an open source code so as to evade expensive software
licenses and expertise knowledge of how the interpreter program works.

2.4 The program must give the system a sense of intelligence such as calculating the
shortest route between grid-points on the patient’s body, commonly known as the
Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) and then continuously monitor the path on the
patient’s body as it moves from the one point to another to take data.

15
2.5 A bonus objective would be to actually compare this LDV study with actual data obtained
by other means, for example an ECG.

3. MOTIVATION

The biomechanical engineering industry has enjoyed a lot of attention during the past decade.
More and more systems are being developed to cancel out human error, to improve and even
automate processes. The modernized systems in use today produce results of pin-point
precision, delivered at exceptionally high speeds. An emergent method which seems to be
promising in the successful measurement of heart and lung sounds is LDV. The LDV is aligned
with numerous strategic places on the patient’s torso and as he/she inhales or exhales the
interference of the Doppler beam is amplified and shown as a measurement. Nothing would be
as ideal as this scenario. A serious problem however is the setup and control of such a device. A
specialized technician must setup the LDV, however, due to its inertia, it compromises the correct
alignment. Furthermore, only a specialist can derive useful information from the interference
graphs and since several points must be locked onto in a diagnosis, the device must quickly
redirect its measuring head.

A possible solution for the problem of the mass of the LDV mechanism is to automate the
process and develop a more user-friendly interface with which to control the alignment of the
LDV beam. Another branch of this problem is to correctly align the LDV head, both at a rapid
speed and with high accuracy. Numerous solutions in the past would suggest mounting the LDV
head on a gantry system of some kind. In theory this will work, but the rapidly shifting mass of the
LDV will induce a lot of vibration stresses at accelerated speeds and will require strong servo-
motors to ensure rapid accurate movement.

The LDV only measures the first and second derivates of the tissue displacement. Thus it is
irrelevant to register the distance of the body with respect to the LDV meter. One of the internal
components of the LDV is already a prism, so a promising solution for this problem would be an
inline device to the laser that passes two prisms, controlling its deviation. To close the feedback
loop, a camera monitors the deflected beam on the patient’s body. Via image recognition in a

16
discrete, closed loop differential control program, the prisms can be rotated rapidly and
accurately in order to position the beam on a specific grid point on the patient’s body, issued by
the user’s command.

4. PROJECT ACTIVITIES

The following activities are anticipated for the execution of the project. The actual schedule
versus the initial baseline time scales associated with each activity is given in Appendix A. The
budgeted cost is also compared with the actual expenditure.

4.1 Literature study

4.2 Compile Design Requirements

4.3 Investigate Concepts for the Alignment System

4.4 Preferred Concept Selection

4.5 Design Review

4.6 Prototype Detail Design

4.7 Prototype Controller Programming

4.8 Prototype Detail Manufacturing

4.9 Prototype Interface Linkage

4.10 Prototype Model Testing

4.11 Final Report

17
5. LITERATURE OVERVIEW

Italian biomechanical researchers are the

pioneers of a new technology that correlates the
measurement of the skin surface vibration on a
body to the underlying vascular wall motion of
superficial arteries and the chest wall (Hong &
Fox, 1997:1). Data obtained from tissue
phantoms suggested that the detected signals
were related to intravascular pressure, an
important clinical and physiological parameter.
Directing the LDV on strategic positions on a Figure 1 : Medical LDV application [Hong,
patient’s skin as seen in Figure 1, the LDV HyunDae, Fox, Martin (1997 : 11)]
registers that the motion velocity profiles of the
skin surface near each superficial artery and auscultation points on a chest for the two heart
valve sounds exhibited distinctive profiles (Hong & Fox, 1997:1). In short LDV has the potential to
be a simple yet very competitive solution for non-invasive cardiovascular screenings as opposed
to the conventional electrocardiography (ECG). Before incorporating the LDV into a laser pointing
device, the physical layout of a LDV is explored below in Figure 2.

The basic operation principle of a vibrometer is a two beam interferometer that calculates the
frequency/phase difference between a test beam and an internal reference beam caused by the
vibration of the reflective body (Kilpatrick & Markov, 2008:19).

Figure 2 : Principle of how a LDV works [Hong, HyunDae, Fox, Martin (1997 : 15)]

18
“The photo detector produces a frequency modulated (FM) signal, with the Bragg cell frequency
as the carrier frequency, and the Doppler shift as the modulation frequency. This signal can then
be demodulated to derive the velocity vs. time of the vibrating target “(Kilpatrick & Markov,
2008:21).

For this project, the VibroMetTM 500 LDV from MetroLaser INC, will be used. This LDV can
register a velocity range of 5μm/s to 800mm/s and a displacement range from 0.1nm to 5m at an
operating distance of 1cm to 5m, that makes this LDV ideal for this type of application. Using a
LDV as a fast mechanism for full body diagnostics will require a device that could accurately pin
point the LDV beam towards the target of interest. For controllability, a more conventional and
initial idea was to physically mount the VibroMetTM 500 LDV head as seen in Figure 3 on a type
of 2-axis-gantry-system. This idea was not pursued because it would have a very limited range,
speed, large frame and mere for the fact of lack in design innovation.

Figure 3 : MetroLaser VibroMet 500V

[VibroMet™ 500V Laser Doppler
Vibrometer, (S.a)]

19
Initially, a promising idea was to use a highly reflective mirror, mounted on a two-degree-of-
freedom device to deflect the beam. Figure 4 shows the major alternative that was considered if
it was decided to use a mirror, mounted on a gear differential. There are however, a few major
drawbacks to the latter concept of using mirrors. Firstly, since only a single mirror is used, one of
the axis systems must be mounted onto the other axis system for the complete design to be
compact. Secondly, the mirrors available would compromise the beam’s energy because it would
only return with 60% of its original energy state, at best. Thirdly, mirrors are much more
expensive and more difficult to mount than prisms. Fourthly, a non-linear control model is
required which increases the complexity of the control system.

The idea of mirrors and all the possible concepts were terminated due to the drawbacks
experienced during simulation. The purpose of this report is not to explore all of those ideas in
detail, but just to present the final design.

Figure 4 : Gear differential design

20
6. RISLEY BEAM POINTER

The innovation of using a prism pair was considered and hence, all efforts were focused on this
much more promising concept.

The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation (Ball Aerospace) has already developed a
Risley Beam Pointer (RBP) mechanism capable of high pointing accuracy and operational
bandwidth (Schwarze, 2006:1).

Figure 5 : Section of RBP [Ostaszewski, Figure 6 : Scale of RBP [Ostaszewski

(2006:3)] (2006:9)]

RBP beam-steering systems as seen in Figure 5 and Figure 6 are preferred over mirrored
beam-steering systems since a Risley prism pair offers a more compact design, is relative
insensitive to vibration, has a low moment of inertia, and it is independent of rotational axes
(Schwarze, 2006:1). Furthermore, they are robust and very fast. The idea of a RBP is patented
by the international company, OPTRA incorporated.

This specific project, form hereon will be referred to as Helios, named after the mythological
Greek sun god. Helios is completely exempted from any patent legislature since the only
similarity between the RBP design and the design put forward in this report, is the scientific way
in which beam-steering is achieved, which is via a Risley pair. There are a lot of differences that
makes this project unique and as soon as the idea is properly introduced, a comparison will be
drawn up between the RBP and Helios.

21
7. RISLEY PAIR CALCULATIONS

Prior to the rest of the design, the wedge angle and diameter specification of the prisms must be
made in order to be able to select the appropriate wedge prism. The principle of vector transform
matrices were used to perceive how the laser exactly travels through each prism as seen in
Appendix B. The geometry of these prisms was linked in an Excel Spreadsheet so that various
specifications of the Risley pairs could be compared. The exact analysis, including the spacing
between prisms and their thicknesses was considered in calculating the appropriate wedge
angle. This is a crucial trait that must be inspected to see whether the deviated beam that leaves
the first prism, would even pass through the intended surface or completely miss it.

Figure 7 : Mathematical simplification

A simplified model is used in this progress report in order to backup the pattern which is
mentioned at a later stage. The assumptions made for this model in Figure 7 are that:

1. The prisms have no thickness border, in other words the top apex is made distinct; the
wedge angle is directly adjacent to the base.
2. The two adjacent prisms are directly next to each other.
3. The prism pair is so small in comparison to their distance to the target, that its internal
plane deviations are neglected.

The full derivation of the simplified mathematical model is fully described in Appendix B.

22
From the matrix algebra derived in Appendix B the following control laws were derived, resulting
in Equation B24.

ߙെߚ
‫ݔ‬ሺߚǡ ߙ ሻ ͲǤͶʹͻʹͷܴ݉ܽ‫‹• ݔ‬ሺߙ െ ߚሻ …‘•ሺߚሻ ൅ ܴ݉ܽ‫ ʹ•‘… ݔ‬ቀ ቁ •‹ሺߚሻ
ʹ
൤ ൨ൌ቎ ቏ [B24]
‫ݕ‬ሺߚǡ ߙ ሻ ͲǤͶʹͻͷܴ •‹ሺߙ െ ߚሻ •‹ሺߚሻ െ ܴ …‘•ʹ ቀ
ߙെߚ
ቁ …‘•ሺߚሻ
݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ʹ

x and y are the coordinates of the Risley Beam projection onto a wall and α and β are the
rotations of the exit and enter prisms in radians, respectively. The convention of these angles is
positive anti-clockwise with the middle axis pointing directly at the LDV aperture. Rmax is
maximum deviation given by Equation B18.

‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬
ܴ݉ܽ‫ ݔ‬ൌ [B18]
–ƒ ༌ ሺͳǤͷ •‹ ሺͳͺͲιെʹߠ െƒ•‹ ༌ሺͲǤ͸͸͸  …‘• ሺߠ ሻሻሻሻሻ
ሺͳͺͲιെߠ െƒ•‹ ༌

Prior to further design, the author first simulated a mathematical model that could control the
laser deviation and point the laser at a specific target. This was achieved with great success,
concluding that the prototype would indeed be controllable. Figure 8 below is an illustration of a
simulation of the control law, which was programmed by the author.

Figure 8 : Prism pair simulation

It was decided to resolve to a standard cylindrical prism from the EKSMA OPTICS catalogue that
has a diameter of 12.7 mm and wedge angle of 23.5°. For this particular angle, the theoretical
maximum radius of cover for the Risley prism pair in Equation A18 reduced to:

23
ܴ݉ܽ‫ ݔ‬ൌ ͲǤͷ͵͹ͻ͵ͷ‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ [B18]

A noteworthy advantage to this project is that the radius of cover is directly proportional to the
offset range.This project will be linked to a PC or laptop and thus the α and β angles can be
calculated quickly (Appendix B).

The particular prisms are made of BK7 glass with a refraction index of 1.51. The conversion from
mirrors to prisms was vital since prisms have a transmission of 98% across its designed
wavelength 600 nm – > 800 nm. This implies that as the laser passes through the prism
chamber, reflects off the targeted object and returns back through the prism chamber, arriving
back at the LDV head, the returning laser beam would be at (0.98)4 ~ 92 percent its original
strength. This is a major improvement in comparison to the 60 percent return strength of using a
highly reflective mirror. The theoretical bandwidth of the system was simulated and for entry
prism to be locked and the exit prism let free to rotate the elliptical locus, illustrated as the solid
line in Figure 9, would emerge. If the enter prism also rotates, the pattern would simply swivel
around its origin. Notice that it has a theoretical maximum cover diameter of 2.153 m at an offset
range of 2 m.

0
600 0 -600

Logged Points
mm

-600
Circle

-1200
mm

Figure 9 : Laser locus

24
8. HARDWARE

It was decided to resolve to stepper motors rather than DC motors as the driving mechanism to
rotate the prism chambers. Stepper motors are much more favourable for this application due to
their high torque direct output for its small frame. Future more, steppers is generally used for high
precision applications due to their small index step slots and holding torques. Prior to stepper
selection, a stepper controller that could communicate to a PC needed to be sourced.

8.1 Controller and Steppers

The BS0710-USB (see Figure 10) board from AP ELECTRONICS

is a complete Unipolar/Bipolar dual stepper motor controller system
which can be controlled from a microcontroller using the serial
interface or a PC using the USB connection. It includes the
capability of driving one or two stepper motors, each of which being
either Unipolar (4-pole) or bipolar (2 pole). All motor coordinates and
rates are expressed in programmable micro step units of 1/2 to 1/64
of a full step. One of these units was ordered.

Figure 10 : BS0710 – USB [Size

16 hybrid stepper motor (S.a)]
The 16 HS Hybrid Stepper (see Figure 11) from RS
COMPONENTS provides 200 steps per revolution when run at
full step configuration. It has an impressive hold torque of 6 N.cm
for its small frame. By default, the hybrid stepper has an index
angle of 1.8º, but connected to the abovementioned stepper
board and initialized to full power on idle windings a theoretical
fine resolution of 0.028125º could be obtained. This stepper is
compatible with the abovementioned stepper board and is within
power requirements. Two of these units were ordered.

Figure 11 : 16 HS Hybrid
stepper [Size 16 hybrid stepper
motor (S.a)]
25
As secondary objective of this project it was required for the hardware to be very user friendly.
Figure 12 below is the running configuration. The PC or laptop emulates a USB hub as a virtual
COM port, through which the BS0710 is connected with a USB to Serial cable. The company
Peter North Consulting Incorporated gives supplementary software with a purchase of one of
their products that makes communication between the board and the PC very straightforward.
Within this software is the C++ source code to communicate directly with the board that is
labelled as open source. A 12 V DC power supply, supplies power to both motors and the
stepper board. The two motors, labelled stepper x and stepper y are connected directly to this
board.

16 HS Hybrid
Stepper X

BS0710 USB

Stepper Board

USB to Serial Converter

16 HS Hybrid
Stepper Y
12 V DC Power
Supply

Figure 12 : Hardware interlinks

26
8.2 Prism Chamber

The crucial part of this project is to house the fundamental

Risley prisms concentrically but separately from one another.
A major problem however is that the deviated laser needs to
travel through the middle of each prism, eliminating a center
rotary axis as a design option. As already emphasized, the
design should house two prisms inline which must be able to
rotate independently from one another. Another important
requirement to be kept in mind is to minimize cost. An
attribute to improve on the OPTRA device is to scale it down,
making it more compact. This design is still relatively large,
since it only needs to bend a line of light, but due to
machining implications and costs, this scale of the prototype
proved ideal.

Figure 13 : Section of prism

This design consists of two, 48 toothed aluminum timing belt chamber

pulleys supplied by RS COMPONENTS that is machined

down to house three narrow deep-groove-ball-bearings, mounted concentrically, as seen in the
sectioned view of Figure 13. This is called a floating bearing design, since the numerous
components all slide concentrically into each other, but are supported at the edges by two laser
cut plates by FABRINOX. A detailed mechanical drawing pack is assembled in Appendix E of
the chosen design and catalogues of the auxiliary components are listed in Appendix D.

Initially it was decided to use gears to drive the prism chambers. This was not carried out due to
several reasons. The timing belt crossover was crucial to eliminate the potential backlash play of
gears that would greatly compensate precision and the noise factor. The chambers are much
larger than the stepper shafts, so a pulley ratio further refines the resolution of chamber rotation
to a factor of eight. Deep-groove-ball-bearings were selected over thrust/needle bearings due to
their excellent axial alignment trait. They are more compact and the fact that they can withstand a

27
small axial thrust required to house the chamber section within two plates makes this type of
bearing ideal for the specific application.

The inner workings of the timing

belt pulleys house a softer,
vesconite bushing, which in turn
gently house the wedge cylindrical
prism. The prisms are located
within the bushings and then press
fitted into the undercuts within the
separate prism chambers. The
outer plates are laser cut from
aluminum to correctly position the
smaller timing belt pulleys mounted
onto the two steppers with set

screws. Figure 15 shows both Figure 15 : Isotropic views of expanded prism chambers
frontal and rear isotropic views of
the components when they are expanded on the concentric axis. The large aluminum faces also
indirectly act as heat sinks for the respective steppers that will heat up quickly if driven in full
winding mode for precision. This floating bearing design enables the user to quickly disassemble
the mechanism to reach the prisms in the case when they need to be cleaned. Figure 14
displays the completely assembled Helios design.

Figure 14 : Assembled Helios design

28
The major differences when comparing Helios to that of the OPTRA RBP, previously mentioned,
would be that:

1. Helios uses a timing belt pulley to house the prisms rather than mounting the prisms in
the rotor of the OPTRA design.
2. Helios uses two prisms where OPTRA uses three to steer the laser beam.
3. Helios is a more modular design in that many components are interchangeable.
4. Helios is a more compact design, smaller and does not consume as much power.
5. Helios is less expensive than a single OPTRA unit commercially.
6. Helios incorporates a dedicated webcam to provide feedback for tracking while OPTRA
uses the three rotors’ encoders for prism positioning and therefore operates “blindly”.

8.3 Camera

As stated previously, an important secondary

objective of this project required the hardware must
be as user friendly as possible. In final phase of
Helios the Logitech C500 Webcam (Figure 16)
was used to provide the PC or laptop with a crucial
ability, namely vision.

This webcam is very user friendly, compatible and

easily installed with the accompanying driver
software. The latter webcam’s maximum rating is
specified as 1280 x 1040 pixels per frame with a Figure 16 : Logitech C500 Webcam
refresh rate of 40 frames per second (fps). [Logitech webcam sale C500 (S.a)]

29
9. DRIVING PROGRAM

Prior to analyzing the footage from the webcam an appropriate programming environment
needed to be found. Visual C++ was chosen as the program language in the Qt SDK by Nokia
v2010.1 interface. The application builder comprised of MinGw 1.98 and MSYS 1.0.11.
Furthermore, for the application to work stand-alone, the JDK-6 was installed as a program
environment. Lastly for image recognition, OpenCV 2.0 libraries was installed and properly
configured in Netbeans. The program logic layout in Figure 17 will be discussed in this section.

Figure 17 : Program logic

9.1 Image Recognition

Although OpenCV has built in functions to perform

object tracking, it is done very poorly. These functions
of OpenCV have long detection times which in turn
delay the camera and become unstable relatively
quickly because it is so susceptible to image noise.

Instead, a program was developed by the author to

fully comprehend the fundamental nature of object
tracking. The concept used in object tracking is
primarily color histogram matching. Prior to creating a
Figure 18 : HSL dimension[Colorbudz
(S.a)]
30
histogram for each frame, the image received from the webcam was converted from its Red
Green Blue (RGB) standard to its Hue Saturation Luminosity (HSL) standard counterpart as seen
in Figure 18.

This is an appropriate conversion to collectively represent a group of colors. Hue delegates the
color spectrum, saturation the color intensity and luminosity the lightness of the color. Initially the
idea of a single logical AND-gate filter for these respective channels proved promising. There

Figure 19 : HSL histogram matching

was a major drawback however. For instance, if the Hue channel registers two very distinct
colors in an object. The latter methodology will impede the accurate filtering since only one peak
per channel is passed. By making the bandwidth too large within the filter, the image becomes
vulnerable to color noise very quickly. Therefore a different approach was taken.

A three channel histogram is created for the particular object of interest. This is analog to a
Fourier transform for a vibrating body. This histogram along with a constant threshold can be

31
used to filter everything, except the tracked object, out in a streaming image. This concept is
much more promising, since it literally searches for similarity in the “genetic makeup” of the
objects. For instance, referring to Figure 19, a laser pointer will be selected as the tracking object
of interest. The three channels of the pixels that pass the histogram check (above the horizontal
line) are maxed out to white, while the others are zeroed out to black. Notice the numerous
smaller peaks that represent image noise as represented in Figure 19.

This algorithm is very effective, but to further increase the accuracy of this algorithm, the already
filtered frame is passed through a median filter to suppress further noise. The idea of using such
a filter is that numerous white noise pixels’ weight cannot be passed through once the pixels
values are averaged. Every time a white pixel is found per frame, each white pixel’s axis length is
summed and the pixel count incremented. In one sweep of the frame the weighted center of the
image becomes:

σ ܰ
‫݅ݔ‬
ܺത ൌ ݅ൌͳ
ܰ
[1]

σ ܰ
‫ݕ‬
ܻത ൌ ݅ൌͳ ݅ [2]
ܰ

It is also very diverse, since the user initially highlights the characteristic color of the tracked
object, giving him/her the ability to track any other object of the same color.

These coordinates are then used in a feedback program to line up the laser with the target. The
programming of this application was done very precisely. Great care was taken to reassign
memory and impede memory stack overflows. Furthermore, the algorithm used is applied in such
a manner to minimized detection time, enabling fast object tracking.

9.2 Discrete Control

Discrete proportional control is used as a feedback model to lineup the “Chaser” point with the
“Target” point as seen in Figure 20. This part of the program, namely the discrete controller is
launched as a separate independent thread. Thus the main program is not delayed by the
sequential filtering of the OpenCV framework, which speeds up tracking. This thread has a
specified proportional constant and a discrete running frequency.

32
In the early stages of programming, when indexing step positions for respective steppers, it was
found that the system response was very jagged as the steppers jumped between assigned step
positions. It was decided to indirectly control the respective step positions by rather using speed
control, since it gave much smoother transition movements. There was however another
drawback that impeded fast tracking. A faster response time automatically implies a faster
controller frequency, but due to the nature of a serial connection, this reached some upper limit.

This control frequency limit was reached since a built-in safety feature of the board flushed any
“bottlenecked” commands. Earlier programming simply launched the command via a system
command through the sertest.exe application console supplied by Peter North Consulting,
manufactures of the stepper board.

Figure 20 : Tracking parameters

Standard serial protocol for this sertest.exe was to open a COM port then set baud and parity
settings. Only then was a command passed and the port was closed again.

Control feedback is acquired via the webcam so it is unnecessary for the board to close after
each sent command, since no two-way connection is required for data-streaming. Another point
to notice is the long trail the command runs, e.g. From the C++ program to the System Console
to the sertest.exe application, before it is actually issued to the board.

The author analyzed the source code of the sertest.exe application and pulled the code into his
own program. He made a direct, brute force, always-open simplified gateway between his

33
program and the board that significantly increased the controller frequency from 8 Hz to a new
upper limit of 33 Hz. Only once the program exits, does the program close the COM port.

Only when the target is identified and the chaser point is recognized through the histogram filter,
does the program first test whether a shorter route exists in the other direction rather than the
conventional one. The target and chaser points both fall within a polar coordinate system, having
a calibrated origin and maximum range. The respective step rates of each stepper are then
adjusted accordingly to these calibrated references. To account for angular offsets, both prisms
needed to be locked and rotated together, hence:

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫݌ܭ‬

‫ ܺݎ‬ൌ  െ ൣ൫ߠܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െ ߠ‫ ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬൯൧ [3a]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫݌ܭ‬

‫ ܻݎ‬ൌ  ൅ ൣ൫ߠܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െ ߠ‫ ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬൯൧ [4a]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬

rX and rY represent the respective stepper step rates [μ-steps/s]. 61540 is the trial and error
micro step count the steppers have to turn for the laser to perform a full revolution. M sec is the
discrete controller period and Kp the proportional constant. To account for radial offsets, the
prisms needed to be rotated in opposite directions, with a difference ranging from 0° to 90°
between them, hence:

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫ߨ ݌ܭ‬൫ܴܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െܴ‫ ݎ݁ݏܽ ݄ܥ‬൯

‫ ܺݎ‬ൌ  െ ൤ ൨ [3b]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬ Ͷܴ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫݌ܭ‬ ߨ ൫ܴܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െܴ‫ ݎ݁ݏܽ ݄ܥ‬൯

‫ ܻݎ‬ൌ  ൅ ൤െ ൨ [4b]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬ Ͷܴ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬

Figure 21 depicts the radius relationship if the prisms are rotated in opposite directions. The
radius can be adjusted by forcing a phase difference of 90° between the α and β angles. To
minimize conflict with the angular alignment, the maximum addition deviation for radial alignment
is 45° per prism.

1
0.8
| R/Rmax |

0.6
0.4
0.2 Difference
0
0 100 200 300
Phase Difference [α-β]

Figure 21 : Phase difference

34
Thus using the principle of superposition, it results in the following discrete controller law, hence:

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫݌ܭ‬ ߨ ൫ܴܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െܴ‫ ݎ݁ݏܽ ݄ܥ‬൯

‫ ܺݎ‬ൌ  െ ൤൫ߠܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െ ߠ‫ ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬൯ ൅ ൨     [3c]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬ Ͷܴ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬

͸ͳͷͶͲ ͲͲͲ ‫݌ܭ‬ ߨ ൫ܴܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െܴ‫ ݎ݁ݏܽ ݄ܥ‬൯

‫ ܻݎ‬ൌ  ൅ ൤൫ߠܶܽ‫ ݐ݁݃ݎ‬െ ߠ‫ ݎ݁ݏ݄ܽܥ‬൯ െ ൨     [4c]
ʹߨ ‫ܿ݁ݏܯ‬ Ͷܴ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬

This type of controller has two very distinct traits:

· A disadvantage is that for this approach to work, the program must be roughly calibrated
to an origin and maximum range, Rmax.
· A major advantage, however is that as the name implies, this type of control will always
lineup the chaser point with the target point, even if the calibration is not a 100 percent
accurate representation of the origin and boundary.

Figure 22 and Figure 23 both show the measure response of a typical program test run, where
the user locked onto random coordinates on the screen. The dashed block graphs represent the
target steps while the overshot graph represents the step response of the actual chaser point.
Notice that the actual chaser point’s nature is of a second degree differential step response with
a fast rise time and slight overshoot.

4
Teta [radians]

3
Target
2 Chaser

0
0 10 20 30 40 50
-1
Time [sec]

Figure 22 : Angular discrete control

35
 400

350

300
Radius [pixels]

250

200 Target
150 Chaser

100

50
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time [sec]

Figure 23 : Radial discrete control

Also notice how the system initially restores itself. For a minimum radius, the two prisms need to
be 90° out of phase. Whether α is 90° greater than β or α is 90° smaller than β, is automatically
mathematically forced into stability as seen in the initial spike in Figure 23. The above trait forms
part of the program intelligence objective initially set. After this convention is fixed, tracking
occurs rapidly and accurately.

9.3 Graphical User Interface

A major objective of this project was to develop a very

user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Qt SDK by Nokia v2010.01 was used as C++ development

environment. A lot of the initial programming was
condensed and simplified to speed up the tracking of the
laser point. Once the driving program launched, preciously
Figure 24 : Settings file
saved configured data will be loaded from the editable
cal.txt text file (see Figure 24).

36
The contents include:

1. COM port no (e.g. 1)

2. Calibration parameters (e.g. 221 115 320)
3. Correction factor constant (e.g. 1.85)
4. Proportional constant and discrete controller period in milliseconds (e.g. 0.065 30)

Once this command is passed, the serial

connection between the PC and the steppers will
be forced and maintained as long as the
program is active. This command also initializes
both steppers to the following conditions:

· Micro steps index

· Full windings always on
· Stop rate of 60 000 μ-steps/s
· Acceleration of 40 000 μ-steps/s2

Brief instructions to operate the user interface as

shown in Figure 25 will be given below:

1. First compile a HLS histogram by boxing

in the laser on the Video_Capture frame
that will provide streaming footage from
the Webcam. Left click the mouse near
the upper left corner of the laser and
drag the mouse toward the bottom right
corner of the laser to form a white box
Figure 25 : Graphical user interface
around the laser. Make sure to only
select the laser dot. If the laser is
slightly out of sight, toggle the Calibration [On/Off] checkbox to force the laser within the
frame.

2. Toggle Nightmode [On/Off] on and adjust the Threshold Level [%] so that only the laser is
passed through the filter. Once the user is a satisfied, this mode can be toggled off.

37
 3. Toggle Calibration [On/Off] on to start with calibration. This process will issue the two
prisms to accelerate in opposite directions at different speeds. A red tilted four pedaled
flower will gradually be drawn on a frame overlay.

4. As soon as the middle and edges of the flower becomes distinct, the pattern must be
bounded by left clicking in the middle and dragging the circle bigger till it encloses all four
pedals of the flower. If it seems that the middle of the flower is outside the Video_Capture
window, adjust the Webcam slightly and toggle Calibration [On/Off] on again to redo the
calibration. Once the user is satisfied with the calibration he/she can toggle Calibration
[On/Off] off. By clicking SAVE SETTINGS this calibration data is written to a text file,
cal.txt for later use. If calibration has been previously done, click on LOAD SETTINGS to
reinstate the previous calibration data.

5. Toggle Overlay [On/Off] on to display the control bounds, target, chaser points and the
relative error between these two points. The chaser is activated as soon as the right
mouse button is clicked on a target. If the right mouse button is held down, it allows for
continuous tracking.

6. The tracker will chase down the target point and remain idle there if no new target is
selected. As soon as the laser idles, a vibration velocity measurement can be made with
the LDV. At the bottom is a Correction Factor slot. The velocity output registered by the
LDV must be multiplied with this Correction Factor to get the true velocity. See Section
10 for more information about this pseudo velocity.

Note that theoretically it is possible to target the center of the calibration circle, but in practice,
since the calibration is not done 100 percent accurately, Helios will oscillate around the middle
point of the calibration circle, if targeted exactly in the center. After all, this project is intended to
strive on angular misalignment.

38
 Figure 26 : Phases of the program

The author essentially desired to use Helios in fast tracking stickers on a patient’s body and then
by a TSP following the shortest route between them. Prof Scheffer suggested expanding the
project in adding some type of manual override like a joystick controller. The author decided to
merge these two ideas into a hybrid model, hence a target and chaser model. After calibration,
when the user clicks the right mouse button or drags the mouse, holding the right button, the
laser will automatically chase down that point on the screen. The respective walkthrough steps
are illustrated in Figure 26.

39
10. PSEUDO VELOCITY

Even though this project adds two degrees of freedom to the

conventional laser Doppler beam, there is a slight drawback
that can accurately be compensated for. Since the project
bends the laser, it will theoretically cause the LDV to register a
slower observed velocity as depicted in Figure 27.

10.1 Theoretical modeling

The angle and true velocity is given by: Figure 27 : Pseudo concept

‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ ‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬
ߠ ൌ ƒ–ƒ ൬ ൰ ൌ ƒ–ƒ ቀ ቁ [5]
ඥ‫ ʹ ݔ‬൅‫ʹ ݕ‬ ‫ݎ‬

ܸ ݉݁ܽ‫݀݁ݎݑݏ‬ ܸ ݉݁ܽ‫݀݁ݎݑݏ‬
ܸ‫ ݁ݑݎݐ‬ൌ •‹ ༌
ሺɅሻ
ൌ ‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ [6]
•‹ ༌
ሺƒ–ƒ ቀ ቁሻ
‫ݎ‬

V’s represent the velocities, R the relative pixel radius of the tracked laser. Range represents the
pixel offset from the prism chamber perpendicular to the measurement plane. The range
parameter is difficult to set up with each testing. There is another simpler method to acquire this
parameter. Common sense suggests that the boundary diameter will increase with offset from
the prism chamber.

‫ ݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ሾ݉݉ ሿ ‫ ݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ሾ‫ ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ

ൌ [7]
‫ݎ‬ሾ݉݉ ሿ ‫ݎ‬ሾ‫ ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ

‫ ݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ሾ݉݉ ሿ
‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ሾ‫ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ ൌ ‫ݎ‬ሾ݉݉ ሿ
ൈ ‫ݎ‬ሾ‫ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ [8]

Table 1 : Offset tests

Test Range [mm] Rmax [mm] Range/Rmax

1 475 255 1.86
2 535 290 1.84
3 795 425 1.87
4 1065 585 1.82
Average 1.85

40
Numerous tests as tabulated in Table 1 concluded with the following relationship :
‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬ሾ‫ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ ൌ ͳǤͺͷܴ݉ܽ‫ ݔ‬ሾ‫ݏ݈݁ݔ݅݌‬ሿ [8]

Where Rmax is the maximum calibrated radius.

ܸ ݉݁ܽ‫݀݁ݎݑݏ‬
ܸ‫ ݁ݑݎݐ‬ൌ ͳǤͺͷܴ ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ [9]
•‹ ༌ሺƒ–ƒ ༌ሺ ሻ
ܴ

After calibration, Helios v1.0 continuously updates and displays this correction factor. This factor
ranges from 1 to 1.1367 as seen in Figure 28, indicating that at the worst, the registered velocity
needed to be to be scaled to 114 percent which is not that critical.

By example, if the laser registers a velocity of 2.5 mm/s for a body whose relative coordinates are
(x,y) -> (320,115) with a maximum calibrated radius of 450 pixels, what would the true velocity
be?

ʹǤͷ
ܸ‫ ݁ݑݎݐ‬ൌ ͳǤͺͷ‫כ‬ͶͷͲ ൌ ʹǤ͹ͲͲͷ݉݉Ȁ‫ݏ‬
•‹ ༌ሺƒ–ƒ ༌ሺ ሻ
ඥ͵ʹͲ ʹ ൅ͳͳͷ ʹ

1.14
1.12
Correction Factor

1.1
1.08
1.06
Correction
1.04 Factor
1.02
1
0 0.5 1
R/Rmax

Figure 28 : Correction factors

41
10.2 Concept testing

Prior to testing the correction factor methodology, a basic calibration was needed to confirm
whether the LDV would even register a misalignment vibration measurement or just reflect off the
vibrating surface. The following equipment was used:

· Heavy duty shaker, model no 406, from Ling Dynamic LTD.

· LOS PA 100 Power amplifier and oscillator from Ling Dynamic LTD.
· USB PC Oscilloscope, PCU1000 from Velleman Instruments with PC-Lab2000se
software packet
· MetroLaser LDV VibroMet 500V system
· HD Laptop

For the first two tests a reference was acquired to compare the Helios Inline Measurements of
the second two tests. The shaker was electronically excited to a frequency of 70Hz and an
approximate maximum displacement magnitude of 70 microns. Theoretically, this would result in
a maximum velocity of approximately 5 mm/s. Note that the VibroMet 500V controller box’s LOW
Velocity Range was to be toggled on. For the first test, the LDV beam was directly aimed at the
plate screwed into the core of the shaker. The velocity output signal from the LDV amplifier was
coupled to a digital oscilloscope that plugged into a laptop. The first test was performed
perpendicular to the plate, while the second test required diagonal offset of 45° as seen in Figure
29.

Mathematically the 45° incidence setup needs to be multiplied with a correction factor of:

ͳ ͳ
‫ •‘… ׷ ܨܥ‬༌ሺ݅ሻ ൌ …‘• ༌ሺͶͷιሻ ൌ ͳǤͶͳͶʹ

to get the true velocity. Note that the registered frequency stays unchanged. These two traits are
confirmed by comparing the two digital oscilloscope graphs in Figure 30 for the Direct
Measurements.

For the second set of tests, the Helios device was positioned in line with the laser beam as seen
in Figure 29. For the first test, the prism chambers were revolved to cause no deviation. For the
second test, the prisms were rotated to cause maximum deviation. Figure 30 indicates the very

42
accurate relation the two sets of test have with each other. The random noise induced on the
graph is postulated to be from the internal reflections of the prisms if they are not 100 percent
clean. The set of graphs confirm that the correction factor methodology is indeed very applicable.

Figure 29 : Experimental setup

43
 Figure 30 : Experiment data

The data obtained in Figure 30 is pulled into a spreadsheet to make various comparisons
between the sets of test data as displayed in Figure 31. The key parameter in all these tests is
the root mean square (RMS) value of the signal. The theoretical RMS for parameter X over a
period of T is given by the following integral:

ܶ
‫ݐ݀ ʹ ܺ ׬‬
ܴܺ‫ ܵܯ‬ൌ ට Ͳ ܶ
[10]

A discrete numerical version of the above equation is used with N being the number of data
points, results in the following equation:

σܰ
݅ൌͳ ܺ
ʹ
ܴܺ‫ ܵܯ‬ൌ ට [11]
ܰ

44
 1.5

0.5
Output [V]

0
-2 8 18 28 38 48 58 68

-0.5

-1

-1.5
Time [ms]

Direct Measurement Straight Direct Measurement Diagonal

Helios Measurement Straight Helios Measurement Diagonal

Figure 31 : Direct VS Helios measurements

Table 2 : XRMS

SUM X2 N XRMS ANGLE THEORY

Direct Measurement 371.55 500 0.86 0 0.86
Straight
Direct Measurement 192.29 500 0.62 45 0.61
Diagonal
Helios Measurement 385.56 500 0.88 0 0.86
Straight
Helios Measurement 248.93 500 0.71 28.4 0.76
Diagonal

Table 2 indicates the very good correlation between the actual RMS values and the theoretical
predicted RMS values of the respective tests, taking the Direct Measurement Straight test as
reference test. This data, combined with the correction factor methodology introduced in Section
10.1 is crucial to support Helios as a competitive alternative to conventional ECGs.

45
11. SAFETY

Extreme caution should be taken when handling the Helios device. The VibroMetTM 500V can
toggle between two settings:

1. Invisible infrared Laser (780nm, <15mW, Class 3B) and

2. Visible red Laser (650nm, <1mW, Class 2)

The human eye’s blink reflex safeguards him/her from Class 2 laser radiation, although it is
recommended that the user do not directly stare into this visible red light. Class 3B radiation is
much more dangerous than Class 2, merely for the fact that this laser is invisible to the naked
eye. Brief direct or reflective exposure can cause permanent eye damage.

If this device is used in a medical diagnosis, it is advised to provide the patient with proper laser
protective goggles to avoid accidental exposure. Even so, since the Helios device is made up of
numerous reflective aluminum plates and a risley prism pair, the biggest threat is possibly
reflective exposure to the user. This exposure is decrease by minimizing the aperture, hence
sliding Helios unto a bracket that securely mounts it over the laser. Another safety feature of the
VibroMet 500V is that it requires a key to be switched on and has a safety interlock.

Figure 32 : Laser hazard safety

sign[Oxford Physics (S.a)]

46
12. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Helios successfully reached all the initial objectives set in the Project Proposal. Helios bridged
the gap that prevented the idea of using an LDV as a medical diagnostic tool.

The prism chambers and auxiliary components were manufactured to great precision in
accordance with the planned detail mechanical design. Helios was assembled and linked with its
electronic counterparts. The user program that was developed is of a graphical user interface
nature and is very user friendly. The driving program essentially includes open source C++
libraries, making it completely free to the public and avoids costly expenditure for program
licensing. The author explored various sources for image recognition and eventually used the
principle of histogram matching to perform rapid object tracking. The driving program did make
use of sophisticated code to intelligently enable the laser point to chase down the target point.
Among these codes, was the method to force the discrete controller feedback frequency very
high, making it possible for Helios’s very fast and accurate beam steering capability. This makes
it an extremely competitive tool to commercial products like OPTRA.

Since the project was ahead of schedule, time was allocated to explore the bonus secondary
objectives. Theoretical compensation was made for angular offset and this correction factor
correlates very well to that of actual tests performed. From a financial point of view, the
expenditure justifies the outcomes that were reached in this research and design project. A lot
was learned from this prototype project, making it ideal for future development and research for
other biomechanical applications.

47
13. RECOMMENDATIONS

Even though Helios has successfully reached all the initial objectives set in the Project Proposal,
there is a lot of improvement to be made if this prototype is expanded into a future project.

The design of Helios can be scaled down and refined considerably. The prism chambers could
also be isolated to protect the risley prism pair from dirt. Furthermore, provision could be made to
directly integrate Helios onto the LDV device and so eliminate setup issues. The driving program
can be improved by increasing the discrete controller frequency, thus causing a faster response
time for the system. The final recommendation is to automate the calibration cycle of the system.

48
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3. Logitech webcam sale C500 [online], Available at

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4. Norberg, P. 2008. Information and Instruction Manual for BS0610 (revisions G through M)
and BS0710 Stepper Motor Controllers. Motor Controllers, 2 (15): 56.

5. Ostaszewski, M. et al. 2006. “Risley Prism Beam Pointer” in Majumdar, A.K. & Davis,
C.C. (ed.) Free-Space Laser Communication, 6: 1-10.

6. Oxford Physics [online], Available at http://www-

pnp.physics.ox.ac.uk/~monalisa/?m=3&n=4 September 2010

7. Schwarze, C. et al. 2006. “A New Look at Risley Prisms”. OPTRA Inc. June 2006.

8. Size 16 hybrid stepper motor. Mclennan Servo Supplies Ltd. [online], Available at:
www.mclennan.co.uk [27 May 2010]

9. VibroMet™ 500V Laser Doppler Vibrometer

Specifications [online], Available at www.metrolaserinc.com/Vibromet500.htm. September
2010.

49
APPENDIX A : TECHNO-ECONOMICS ANALYSIS

Figure 33 indicates that the project’s actual schedule versus planned schedule coincided to
accurately track the initial baseline. The project was ahead of schedule most of the time, except
for an initial under estimate for time allocated to develop the controller program.

Figure 34 : Helios schedule

Figure 33 : Helios expenses

50
Figure 34 indicates the actual capital expenditure for the Helios project in the closing phase of
the project versus the initial project budget.

· Actual finance : R 147 115.00

· Predicted finance : R 168 490.00

A major contributor to financial support was that open software was used to develop the
controller as required by secondary objective. QT 4 was used as the graphical user interface
software developer kit in conjunction with OpenCV 2 libraries for image recognition and the free
ware BS0710 SerTest application source code provided by Peter North Consulting. Table 3 lists
all the components contributing to the capital expenditure for the Helios project.

Table 3 : Capital expansion

COMPONENT QTY PER UNIT SUB TOT

LOGITECH C500 WEBCAM 1 R 451.50 R 451.50
16 HS HYBRID STEPPER 2 R 382.30 R 764.60
16006Z BEARING 3 R 43.00 R 129.00
BS0710 STEPPER BOARD 1 R 1 321.81 R 1 321.81
23.5 WEDGE PRISM BK7 2 R 572.40 R 1 144.80
PRISMS FREIGHT 1 R 667.80 R 667.80
BELT,TIMING, SYNCHRONOUS,10,T5,650 2 R 95.74 R 191.48
TIMING PULLEY,10 TEETH 10MM W 5MM PITCH 2 R 73.58 R 147.16
TIMING PULLEY,48 TEETH 21MM W 5MM PITCH 2 R 214.69 R 429.38
LASERCUT BRACKET 2 R 29.82 R 59.64
MOUNT BRACKET 1 R 46.72 R 46.72
R 5 353.89
VAT (14%) R 749.54
TOTAL R 6 103.43

The Helios project is considered feasible since the major financial aspect to this project was the
engineering conception and design phase of such an innovative design. Helios was but a
benchmark prototype of a very new and competitive technology that could easily be expanded
and utilized for future research.

51
APPENDIX B : TRANSFORM METHODOLOGY

The transformed coordinate system is given by:

é X 'ù éX ù
êY ' ú = M êY ú
ê ú Gê ú
êë Z ' úû êë Z úû Figure 35 : Coordinate
system

where MG is the transform matrix given by :

é cos j cos k cos w sin k + sin w sin j cos k sin w sin k - cos w sin j cos k ù
M G = êê- cos j sin k cos w cos k - sin w sin j sin k sin w cos k + cos w sin j sin k úú
êë sin j - sin w cos j cos w cos j úû

Suppose both prisms are aligned in line with the x axis. The beam enters from the positive side
and exits towards the negative. Suppose the first is locked in place and the second is rotated
through α radians.

݊ ܽ݅‫ݎ‬ ͳ ݊ ݈݃ܽ‫ݏݏ‬ ͳǤͷ

From here on the index refraction ratio
݊ ݈݃ܽ‫ݏݏ‬
ൌ ͳǤͷ ൌ ͲǤ͸͸͸ and ݊ ܽ݅‫ݎ‬
ൌ ͳ
ൌ ͳǤͷ

The normalized vector entering the last plane is given by

ܺͳ …‘•ሺߠ െ •‹െͳ ሺͲǤ͸͸͸ •‹ θሻሻ

ܻͳ ൌ Ͳ [B1]
ܼͳ •‹ሺߠ െ •‹െͳ ሺͲǤ͸͸͸ •‹ θሻሻ

To simplify the visualization of this exit plane, it is transformed to lie perpendicular on the YZ
plane. The transformed then given by the following:

52
 ܺʹ …‘• ߠ െ •‹ ߙ •‹ ߠ െ …‘• ߙ •‹ ߠ ܺͳ
൥ܻʹ൩ ൌ ൥ Ͳ …‘• ߙ െ •‹ ߙ ൩ ൥ܻͳ൩ [B2]
ܼʹ •‹ ߠ •‹ ߙ •‹ ߠ …‘• ߙ …‘• ߠ ܼͳ

The vector exiting the last plane is given by

ܺ͵ െඥܺʹʹ ൅ ሺͳ െ ሺͳǤͷሻʹ ሻܼʹʹ െξܺʹʹ െ ͳǤʹͷܼʹʹ

൥ܻ͵൩ ൌ ቎ െͳǤͷܻʹ ቏ൌ൥ െͳǤͷܻʹ ൩ [B3]
ܼ͵ െͳǤͷܼʹ െͳǤͷܼʹ

This must be converted back to its original state,

ܺͶ …‘• ߠ Ͳ •‹ ߠ ܺ͵
൥ܻͶ൩ ൌ ൥ െ •‹ ߙ •‹ ߠ …‘• ߙ •‹ ߙ …‘• ߠ ൩ ൥ܻ͵ ൩ [B4]
ܼͶ െ …‘• ߙ •‹ ߠ െ•‹ ߙ …‘• ߙ …‘• ߠ ܼ͵

The laser coordinate projected onto the wall would then be given by

ܺͷ ܺͶ

൥ܻͷ൩ ൌ ™ƒŽŽ ൥ܻͶ൩ [B5]
Ͷ
ܼͷ ܼͶ

Where Xwall is the offset to the wall.

Suppose the first prism is also let free to rotate through β radians. The combined prism effect can
then be described as

ܺͷ ͳ Ͳ Ͳ ܺͶ

൥ܻͷ൩ ൌ ൥Ͳ …‘• β •‹ β ൩ ™ƒŽŽ ൥ܻͶ൩ [B6]
Ͷ
ܼͷ Ͳ െ •‹ β ༌ …‘• β ܼͶ

53
For a 23.5 degree wedge angle Risley prism pair, the Cartesian coordinates of this projection
would be represented by the graph below.

Since the angles and refraction index ratios are fixed, the maximum width ratio of the ellipse to
the circle calculated to be 0.8585. It is also found that there is a direct correlation between the α
and τ, τ being the polar angle in polar coordinates. This is given by:

ߙ
߬ሺߙ ሻ ൌ െͻͲ° ൅ ʹ [B7]

It is evident that a much more simplified form of this

Risley Pair can be described. Prior to this, a quick
computation reveals that the maximum and minimum
cover diameters used in this simplified form. θ is the
wedge angle in radians:

‫ ܣ‬ൌ ͻͲι െ ߠ [B8]

ܰͳ
‫ ܤ‬ൌ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ
ܰʹ
•‹ሺ‫ܣ‬ሻሻ [B9]

‫ ܥ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ʹߠ െ ‫ܤ‬ [B10]

ܰʹ
‫ ܦ‬ൌ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ሺ‫ ܥ‬ሻሻ [B11]
ܰͳ

‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ‫ܦ‬ [B12]

Figure 36 : Prism refraction

ܰʹ
‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ሺ‫ ܥ‬ሻሻ [B13]
ܰͳ

ܰʹ
‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ሺͳͺͲι െ ʹߠ െ ‫ܤ‬ሻሻ [B14]
ܰͳ

54
 ܰʹ ܰͳ
‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ ቀͳͺͲι െ ʹߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ሺ‫ܣ‬ሻሻቁሻ [B15]
ܰͳ ܰʹ

ܰʹ ܰͳ
‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ ቀͳͺͲι െ ʹߠ െ ƒ•‹༌
ሺ •‹ሺͻͲι െ ߠሻሻቁሻ [B16]
ܰͳ ܰʹ

The latter angle is simplified and reduced to

ሺͳǤͷ •‹ሺͳͺͲι െ ʹߠ െ ƒ•‹༌

‫ ܧ‬ൌ ͳͺͲι െ ߠ െ ƒ•‹༌ ሺͲǤ͸͸͸ …‘•ሺߠሻሻሻሻ [B17]

For a given range, the maximum radius of cover then becomes

‫݁݃݊ܽݎ‬
ܴ݉ܽ‫ ݔ‬ൌ –ƒ ༌ሺͳͺͲιെߠ െƒ•‹ ༌ሺͳǤͷ •‹ ሺͳͺͲιെʹߠ െƒ•‹ ༌ሺͲǤ͸͸͸  …‘• ሺߠ ሻሻሻሻሻ [B18]

The polar radius is given by:

ܴ ሺ߬ሻ ൌ െܴ݉ܽ‫‹• ݔ‬༌

ሺ߬ሻ [B19]

If the first prism is locked and the last let free to rotate through αº, the projection coordinates is
then given by:

‫ݔ‬ሺ߬ሻ ൌ ͲǤͺͷͺͷܴሺ߬ሻ…‘•༌
ሺ߬ሻ [B20]

‫ݕ‬ሺ߬ሻ ൌ ܴሺ߬ሻ•‹༌
ሺ߬ሻ [B21]

Suppose the first prism is also let free to rotate through βº, keeping in mind that the α => α – β,
the combined prism effect can then be described as,

‫ݔ‬ሺߚሻ …‘• ߚ •‹ ߚ ‫ݔ‬ሺ߬ሻ

൤ ൨ൌ൤ ൨൤ ൨ [B22]
‫ݕ‬ሺߚሻ െ •‹ ߚ …‘• ߚ ‫ݕ‬ሺ߬ሻ

This finally gives a control law:

ߙ െߚ
‫ݔ‬ሺߚǡ ߙሻ െͲǤͶʹͻʹͷܴ݉ܽ‫‹• ݔ‬ሺെͳͺͲ° ൅ ߙ െ ߚሻ …‘•ሺെߚሻ െ ܴ݉ܽ‫ ʹ‹• ݔ‬ቀെͻͲ° ൅ ʹ ቁ •‹ሺെߚሻ
൤ ൨ൌ቎ ቏ [B23]
‫ݕ‬ሺߚǡ ߙሻ ͲǤͶʹͻͷܴ •‹ሺെͳͺͲ° ൅ ߙ െ ߚሻ •‹ሺെߚሻ െ ܴ •‹ʹ ቀെͻͲ° ൅
ߙ െߚ
ቁ …‘•ሺെߚሻ
݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ʹ

55
Which simplifies to:

ߙെߚ
‫ݔ‬ሺߚǡ ߙ ሻ ͲǤͶʹͻʹͷܴ݉ܽ‫‹• ݔ‬ሺߙ െ ߚሻ …‘•ሺߚሻ ൅ ܴ݉ܽ‫ ʹ•‘… ݔ‬ቀ ʹ ቁ •‹ሺߚሻ
൤ ൨ൌ቎ ቏ [B24]
‫ݕ‬ሺߚǡ ߙ ሻ ͲǤͶʹͻͷܴ •‹ሺߙ െ ߚሻ •‹ሺߚሻ െ ܴ …‘•ʹ ቀ
ߙെߚ
ቁ …‘•ሺߚሻ
݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ݉ܽ‫ݔ‬ ʹ

56
APPENDIX C : RISLEY DEVIATION

It can be derived from Equation (15) that

ߙെߚ
ܴ ሺߙ െ ߚሻ ൌ ܴ݉ܽ‫ ݔ‬ටͲǤͶʹͻʹͷʹ •‹ʹ ሺߙ െ ߚሻ ൅ ܿ‫ ݏ݋‬Ͷ ቀ ቁ [C1]
ʹ

ߙ െߚ
െ …‘• ʹ ቀ ቁ
ߜሺߙ െ ߚሻ ൌ –ƒെͳ ቆͲǤͶʹͻʹͷ  •‹ ሺߙെߚ
ʹ
ሻ
ቇ [C2]

‫ݕ‬
ߛሺ‫ݔ‬ǡ ‫ݕ‬ሻ ൌ –ƒെͳ ቀ‫ ݔ‬ቁ [C3]

ܴሺ‫ݔ‬ǡ ‫ݕ‬ሻ ൌ ඥ‫ ʹ ݔ‬൅ ‫ʹ ݕ‬ [C4]

To simplify matters, ሺߙ െ ߚሻ can be made the subject in Equation (16) through a data plot and a
least square curve fit could describe the function.

200
180
160
140
120
α-β [°]

100
Logged Points
80
Curve fit
60
40
20
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
R/Rmax

Figure 37 : Curve fitting


ͳͷǤͶ
Ͷ͸Ǥ͸ቆͳെ‡  ƒš ቇ

ሺߙ െ ߚሻሺሻ ൌ െͳ͵͵ǤͶ ൅ ൅ ͳͺͲι [C5]
 ƒš ‡ ͳͷǤͶ

57
APPENDIX D : HARDWARE CATALOGUE

D.1 VibroMet 500V

58
D.2 SKF 16006Z

59
D.3 16 Hybrid Stepper Motor

60
D.4 Synchroflex Timing Pulleys T5

61
D.5 Logitech Webcam C500

62
APPENDIX E : MECHANICAL DRAWING PACK

E.1 10T5

63
E.2 Prism Bushing

64
E.3 Enter Chamber

65
E.4 Enter Plate

66
E.5 Exit Chamber

67
E.6 Exit Plate

68
E.7 Laser Insert

69
E.8 Assembled Helios

70