Forecasting bifurcation morphing: application to cantilever-based sensing

Two novel techniques are proposed to enhance the bifurcation morphing method as applied to cantilever-based sensors. First, nonlinear feedback excitations with added time delay are employed to minimize the sensitivity of the sensors to small variations in the unavoidable time delay. Second, a novel approach to forecast bifurcations is applied to the sensors. This approach significantly reduces the time required to obtain bifurcation diagrams. Both techniques are demonstrated experimentally in detecting mass variations of a test cantilever beam. This cantilever-based sensor operating based on the bifurcation morphing method is shown to be accurate, quick and robust when these techniques are utilized.