with the housing 48 in accordance with the present invention the operation of the apparatus illustrated in fig2 is similar to the operation of the embodiment described above for fig1 radiation is emitted from the signal source 58 and then propagated through the optical fiber 54 to the detector 60 and the signal processing system 62 when member 44 moves in response to exerting pressure or having pressure exerted against it pressure pad 46 simultaneously moves laterally within housing 48 the lateral movement induces microbending deformation in the optical fiber loop portion coupled to the pressure pad 46 radiation propagating through the optical fiber 54 is attenuated by the deformation in the loop portion 56 the degree of attenuation is related to the amount of deformation and indirectly to the amount of pressure exerted by or against member 44 thus the deformation of the loop portion 56 and the resulting attenuation of the signal intensity at detector 60 is a measure of pressure at member 44 in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention the optical fiber sensor systems of fig1 and 2 may be combined in a single apparatus for example a robotic arm may have the apparatus of fig1 at the elbow and the apparatus of fig2 at the gripper hand the optical fiber pressure and position sensor systems can be part of a feedback control system in which the robotics assembly can instantaneously compensate for too little or too much pressure or movement applied by the arm member to an object by continuously monitoring the signals exiting from the optical fibers.