OPTICAL FIBER GRIPPING AND POSITIONING APPARATUS

摘要

The apparatus uses a gripper mounted on a moveable arm to pick up an optical fiber at a pickup location, with the free end of the optical fibe r extending from the gripper. The arm is moved to position the free end generally in the region of the target location, but slightly displaced therefrom. An image of the re gion of the target location is obtained from a camera directed to receive the image, where the region is backlit by diffused light from a light source. Where the targe t is a component on a translucent substrate, the substrate may act as the diffuser for the light source. The image from the camera is analyzed to determine the positio n ofthe free end in relation to the target location, and the arm is moved to accurately position the free end at the target location based on the determination of r elative positions. The gripper has a downwardly-opening inverted V-shaped groove run ninglongitudinally, to which a vacuum is supplied.