TMMS04 - Mekatronik

Sensors and signal conditioning

Karl-Erik Rydberg

Inst. för Ekonomisk och Industriell utveckling

Linköpings universitet
Karl-Erik.Rydberg@liu.se

Example – Camera with auto focus

On/Off Motor Drive Motor to advance film

Shutter Solenoid Solenoid to open shutter

Battery Test Solenoid Solenoid to close shutter

CPU Lens Position
Range Sensor Interface Lens position motor
Drive
Aperture
Light Sensor Interface Aperture stepper motor
Control Drive
Lens Position
Display of data in viewfinder
Sensor

Refer to fig 1.15 in the book Mechatronics by W. Bolton

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 Sensors, modern examples

Potentiometer for position measurements

‡ The potentiometer is the most common sensor for
displacements and position.

Uin
Uut

2
 LVDT for displacements
‡ Linear Variable Differential Transformer, LVDT, is a very common
transducer for displacement measurements. Its robust
characteristics makes ideal for many industrial applications.

Strain gauge sensors for measurements

of force, pressure and torque
‡ The electrical resistance strain gauge is a metal wire, metal
foil or a configuration of semiconductor material that
changes its relative resistance ΔR/R proportional to the
strain ε.

ΔR
= Gε
R

3
 Optical sensors

Programmable Color Sensor

Laser Range Scanner

Distance (Triangulation)
0 – 155m
Contrast Sensor

Optical encoders – Pulse sensors

‡ An encoder is a device that provides a digital output as a result of
a linear or angular displacement. There are incremental and
absolute encoder types. Absolute encoders are normally using
Gray-code.

Example of incremental encoder

Movement direction

Channel A
Channel B

Channel I

4
 Hall-effect sensors
‡ The Hall-effect sensors makes use of the deviation of the
charged particles in a material when applied to an external
magnetic field.

BI
Vout = K H B
t

Tacho-generator – Speed sensor

‡ The tacho-generator is used to measure angular velocity.
A pick-up coil is wound on a permanent magnet and
placed close to a toothed wheel. The generated change in
magnetic flux will result in an output proportional to the
angular velocity.

5
 Accelerometer

Capacitive
1 Piezoresistive
G ( s) =
s 2 + 2ξω0 s + ω0 Piezoelectric
2
Thermal
Gas

Gyroscope/Rate Gyros
Rotor Gyroscope Optical Gyroscope Vibrating Gyroscope

6
 Termo-element
‡ Two metals in contact with each other produces an potential
depending on the selection of metals and temperature. By
using two such contact points one can measure relative
temperature between the two points.
Metal 1

Metal 1
Metal 2

”Cold” Junction,
Hot Junction Reference Temprature

E = at + bt 2
The thermoelectric effect
Type K,E,J,N,B,R,S,T….

Switches for boundary levels

SPST=Single Pole – Single Throw

SPDT=Single Pole – Dual Throw

SPDT

NC

NO

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 Sensor-characteristics
Basic Characteristics Dynamic Characteristics
‡ Range ‡ Response time
‡ Error ‡ Time constant
‡ Accuracy ‡ Rise time
‡ Sensitivity ‡ Settling time
‡ Hysteresis ‡ Bandwidth
‡ Non-linear
‡ Repeatability
‡ Stability
‡ Dead band Refer to section 2.2 in the book Mechatronics by W. Bolton

‡ Resolution
‡ Impedance

Mätområde / Spann - Range and Span

‡ The range of a transducer defines the limits

between which the input can vary

Example of water level transducer

Upper limit 18m

Range = 12 to 18m
Span = 6m

Lower limit 12m

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 Mätfel - Error

‡ Error is the difference between the results of the

measurement and the value of the quantity being
measured.

Example of outdoor temperature measurement

25° Measured temperature

True temperature: 24°

Error = measured temperature (25°) – true temperature (24°) = 1°

Mätnoggrannhet - Accuracy
‡ Accuracy is the extent to which the value indicated by a
sensor might be wrong. It is the summation of all possible
error during the operation of the sensor.

Example of outdoor temperature measurement

Accuracy of ±2°
25° Measured temperature
True temperature: 24°

The true temperature (24°) lies within the accuracy

of the sensor (±2°) from the measured temperature (25°)

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 Känslighet - Sensitivity

‡ The sensitivity is a numerical ratio between

output and input.
Example of temperature measurement. A rise
in temperature expands the media a certain length
upwards.
Difference in length: 18mm Difference in temperature: 4°C

The sensitivity is 18/4=4.5mm/°C

Hysteresfel - Hysteresis Error

‡ Transducers can give different outputs from the same value
of quantity being measured according to whether that value
has been reached by continuously increasing change or a
continuously decreasing change.

Output

Input

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 Olinjäritet - Non-linearity Error
‡ The non-linearity error describes the deviation from the
ideal straight line behaviour of a transducer.

Example of water level transducer Output signal

Water level

Repeterbarhet - Repeatability

‡ The term repeatability of a transducer is used to describe

its ability to give the same output for repeated applications
of the same input value.
Several readings when
Example of water level transducer water level is 15.6m :

Upper limit 18m 15.66

15.62
15.55
Reference water level 15.6m 15.56
15.61
15.67
15.55
15.52
Lower limit 12m
15.53

The repeatability is maximal error span towards the full range, (15.67-15.52)/(18-12)=2.5%

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 Stabilitet - Stability
‡ The stability of a transducer is its ability to give the same
output when used to measure a constant input over a
period of time. (Drift and zero drift)

+ u
Current sensing
resistor u

- time

The current will heat the resistor and increasing the voltage u.

Dödband - Dead Band

‡ The dead band of a transducer is the range of
input values for which there is no output.

Example of a gas flow meter. The

flow stream must reach a certain
limit before the ball leaves its
supporting seat.

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 Upplösning - Resolution
‡ When the input signal varies continuously over the range,
the output signal may change in small steps, increments of
the full range.

Example of a rotary position encoder.

Resolution = 120 – 115 = 5 degrees

Angle: 115 degrees

Angle: 120 degrees

Responstid - Response time

‡ When applied to a input change, this is the

time until the transducer have settled its
output within some range, typically 95%.

Output signal

∆T 100%
95%

Thermocouple
probe

Time

t95

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 Tidskonstant - Time constant
‡ This is the response time for 63%. It is
directly related to systems of the first order.
The input is typically a step.

Output signal

∆T 100%

63%
Thermocouple
probe

Time
τ

Stigtid - Rise time

‡ This is the time taken for the output to rise to

some specified percentage of the steady-state
output level, typically from 10% to 90%. 5% to
95% or 10% to 95% are also common.
Output signal

∆T 100%
90%

Thermocouple
probe

10% Time

tr

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 Insvängningstid - Settling time

‡ This is the time taken for the output to settle

within some range of the steady-state value,
typically 2%. Second order characteristics is
not common in transducers.

102%
100%
98%
∆P

ts

Bandbredd - Bandwidth

‡ The frequency limit at which the amplitude drops

below some certain level. Sometimes referred to
as the inverse of the time constant. Refer to phase
and amplitude margin in control engineering.

100%
98%
63%

Frequency
fb

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 How to know what you are measuring?

‡ The test setup consists of an axial piston pump (Rexroth A10V)

with 9 pistons. Between the pump and the damper there is a short
pipe (S25). After the damper there is 2,2 meter long hose ended
by an anechoic termination. By tuning the anechoic termination
the end of the hose will be reflectionless.

Pressure ripple in a line

‡ Modes of
oscillat. in the
pump line,
connected to a
damper
(volume)
‡ 1/4-wave
resonant
frequency in the
pump line.
‡ Pressure
transducers
mounted close to
the pump outlet
and volume inlet.

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Measured pressure ripple at pump outlet
(P1) and inlet to a volume (P2)
Pressure amplitude [bar]

Time [ms]

Conditioning of sensor signals

Trans- Signal
ducer Computer
Conditioning

Different types of output signals

•Analogue voltage (typical 0-10V)
•Analogue current (typical 4-20mA)
•Analogue charge
•Digital TTL (typical +5V, 10mA)
•Digital CMOS
•Switch
•Network (Ethernet, RS232,GBIB)

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From measuring signal to digital signal

Sampling and Hold device

LP- S&H Analogue/Digital

filter Converter
Analogue
signals
LP- Micro-
MUX ADC
filter processor

Filtering of measuring signals

-6dB/octave and order

(-20dB/decade and order)

Anti-alias filtering is
important for proper
operation

Frequency

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 Low pass filters – 1 and 2:d order

1-order low pass filter, ωf1= 100 rad/s

2-order low pass filter, ωf2=

100 rad/s, δf2 = 0.5

Butterworth low pass filter 5:th order

1
GBW ( s ) = ω0 = 1 rad/s
a1 s + a 2 s + a3 s 3 + a 4 s 2 + a5 s + 1
5 4

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 Signal filtering
Sine1 SecondOrder1

Second order low

PT2
pass filter with:
ωf = 1.0 Hz, δf = 0.7
f reqHz={1} w={6.28}

Sine-freq = 1 Hz Sine-freq = 5 Hz

Time [s] Time [s]

Sampling frequency
Nyquist Sampling theorem: fs >= 2f0
f0 = 1 Hz Sampled signal, fs = 2 Hz
1

S1
0
[s]
Sampel
S2
-1
[s]
f0 = 1 Hz Sampled signal, fs = 8 Hz
1

0
S3 [s]

-1
[s]
Sampel

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 Time delay at sampling
Sampling and Hold device gives a time delay τ
U(t) U(t+τ)
S&H

e − s⋅τ 0 < τ < T (T = sampling time, [s])

Small T gives: arg (e −iω ⋅τ ) = −ω ⋅ τ

Assume that a sampled signal has a frequency of 10 Hz,
thus ω = 63 rad/s. The sampling time T = 0,01 s and τ = T
gives the phase shift -ωτ = -0,63 rad = -36o.
A sine signal sampled 20 times/period (Hz) gives a
phase shift = -18o

Resolution for A/D-converters

Example using an input voltage range of 0 to 10V

28 ⇒ 1 ⇒ [0 0.039 L 10]
256
210 ⇒ 1 ⇒ [0 0.0097 L 10]
1024
2 ⇒1
12
⇒ [0 0.00244 L 10]
4096
216 ⇒ 1 ⇒ [0 0.000152 L 10]
65536

AD Binary codes

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