This research is aimed at: l. establishing the efficacy of TRIBOSENSING as a technique for nondestructive, and in-process evaluation of materials; and 2. developing a theoretical and practical technical base for the field of tribosensing. Conceptually, the use of a tribosensing system in an industrial process involves measuring and analyzing a combination of tribomechanical, tribothermal, triboelectrical, triboacoustic, and other tribological effects simultaneously during the rubbing of two surfaces in order to determine any material quality parameter of interest. The potential use of tribosensing in manufacturing is very diversified - some examples of applications are: self-diagnostic machines, intelligent sensors for process control, in- process materials characterization, and robot tactile sensing. To develop a practical, automated system based on the tribosensing concept, several specific research issues are identified: 1. selection of sensors and sensing materials; 2. optimization of the design of the sensing probe; and 3. development of tribosensing models and a unified signal processing methodology. To establish the knowledge base for the optimal design of tribosensors, selected experimentation, coupled with theoretical analysis of the physics of the underlying tribological phenomena, will be pursued. To develop a unified methodology for analyzing tribosensing data, the applicability of the recent advances in the field of digital signal processing will be critically examined. The significance of this proposed research lies in the development of a novel, nondestructive, on- line sensing technique for a myriad of industrial applications. Furthermore, the research explores the idea of quantifying and utilizing the "information content" in tribological phenomena, which in itself is a unique approach to furthering our understanding of the physics of tribology.
