Falak, Przemyslaw, King-Cline, Toby, Maradi, Akos, Lee, Timothy, Moog, Bruno, Maniewski, Pawel, Entwistle, Robert, Beresna, Martynas and Holmes, Christopher (2026) Ultra-stable speckle-based optical fiber sensing demonstrated on an uncrewed aerial vehicle platform. Communications Engineering, 5 (46), [46]. (doi:10.1038/s44172-026-00603-w).
Abstract
Speckle-pattern interrogation offers a route to high-resolution spectral sensing, but its uptake has been constrained by poor temporal stability under real-world conditions. Here, we introduce an ultra-stable speckle-based architecture that overcomes these limitations and enables real-time structural health monitoring of uncrewed aerial vehicles. Unlike conventional approaches that rely on large-scale, free-space passive speckle decorrelation, our system utilizes an ultra-compact speckle pattern via laser-written scattering centers in a high aspect ratio flat fiber, encapsulated within a 3D-printed polylactide housing. This architecture suppresses environmental drift and enables robust, high-fidelity interrogation of fiber Bragg gratings in dynamic aerospace conditions. The system demonstrated exceptional stability under sustained mechanical excitation, maintaining measurement integrity at ±7G sinusoidal acceleration along the axial direction. Furthermore, in-flight validation across uncrewed aerial vehicle flight tests confirmed real-time strain interrogation in the -100–400 µε range with a standard deviation in measurement of 1.63 µε. These results mark the demonstration of stable, real-time speckle-based interrogation in flight, establishing a path toward broader deployment of specklemeters in harsh environments.
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