Distributed and multiplexed fibre grating sensors, including discussion ofproblem areas

A short review of distributed and multiplexed sensor technology, based on f ibre gratings, is given. This is followed by details of more specific work in this area at the University of Southampton, particularly grating fabrica tion, distributed and multiplexed addressing and important practical aspect s such as temperature and strain discrimination. The paper concludes with a short discussion of the problems that must be avoided in order to construc t viable systems for engineering requirements.