Automatic Curve Follower Using Polarized Light Beam Chopper

概要

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This paper describes a new automatic curve follower, which can follow a graph given in a thin black line on a white paper or a curve photographically recorded as an oscillogram. The detector consists of two illuminators of the line to be followed, a microscope objective lens by which the image of the line is formed, a polaroid disc which is fixed at the image plane and is divided into two equal parts having their principal planes perpendicular to each other, a rotating polaroid disc driven by a synchronous motor, and a phototube. The beam of light passed successively through the two polaroid disc flickers alternately at the two parts of the field. But the total flux, which the phototube receives, remains constant as far as the curve runs through the center of the field. When the curve deviates from the position, the deviation is picked up by the phototube as an alternating change of the total light flux having an amplitude proportional to the deviation and a reverse phase corresponding to its direction. This detector constitutes a servomechanism in conjunction with a voltage amplifier, a thyratron circuit and a split field motor, which drives the lead screw of the follower. An appropriate masking of the field much improved the performance of the detector.
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