INSTITUTE OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

EE 203 – INSTRUMENTATION & MEASUREMENT
Batch& Section: Assessment: Final Exam Prepared by (sign):
Student Registration No.: Max Time Allowed: 3hr + 30 grace mins
Student Full Name: Max Marks: 100 Approved by (sign):

Instructions for Students

1. Sit in a quiet room during the exam time. Prepare answer sheets in advance.
2. Write your particulars including Name, Registration Number, Batch, Subject Name, Date on the first sheet.
3. Write your registration number on top of all answer sheets that you use.
4. Place your Student ID Card with you during exam for invigilation purposes
5. Your video/mic should be turned on during the duration of the exam
6. Ask any questions from the teacher during the first 10 minutes only. After that, no query will be entertained at all.
7. You are not allowed to leave the examination room before submitting/uploading the answer sheets.
8. Solutions will not be accepted through any other medium except MS Teams. No solution will be acceptable after due time.
9. The preparation of solution is an individual effort and is assumed to be completed with all academic honesty.
10. Cheating by all means is prohibited, and any such attempt may lead to serious consequences.
11. Convert your answer sheet into PDF and save it with file name format (Student RegNo-Subject-Section-Dept , xxxxxxxx-INS-x-EE)
12. 30 min will be given to upload the file after exam time. Upload the file on MS Teams and also email solution to
faran88@gmail.com in case of upload issues
13. All questions are to be attempted

We are looking to build a hollow-cylinder load cell to measure load or any applied Force (N). For this purpose, we are
experimenting with two different materials in its construction i.e. aluminium and an alloy of titanium. We can model
the sensor by a voltage source vs and an impedance zin

i/p Titanium alloy Aluminium

Load (N) Volts (mV) Volts (mV)
0 0.00 0.004
20 0.53 0.007
30 1.10 0.0072
60 0.27 0.01

i. Considering responses of both materials in the table above to various forces, which material would you
choose for your sensor and why? Which sensor’s output has higher correlation with the input? [10]

The first version of the sensory system results in the following characteristic curve (Output vs Input).

Output

Input

ii. What are apparent problems with sensor? Explain while hypothetically traversing the path. [5]

The sensory system is then redesigned. Deviation table is filled up for the second version of the sensor. All data
including the input applied is normalised and converted into %ages of the input span.
iii. From the deviation table above, answer the following directly: [4x5=20]
a. What can we say about zero error? If we apply zero correction, what offset (in %) should we add?
Will zero correction makes the sensor more accurate in general? Also compare if the situation has
changed as it was with the first version of sensor (refer to question ii.)
b. How many cycles are being used here?
c. What are accuracy limits (in %)?
d. What is the (max) repeatability of sensor (in %)?
e. What is the (max) hysteresis of sensor (in %)?

iv. The sensor initially loaded with a weight of 75N and then is suddenly loaded with a total force of 180N.
Sensor’s output increases in an exponential fashion so it is taken as a first-order system. The time
constant is found out to be 2 sec with no steady-state error. [4x5=20]

a. What force will the sensor read after 4 s? How would your answer change if there was a steady-state
error of 10N (i.e. converging at 170N)?
b. Find H(s) i.e. unit impulse response of the system.
c. What is the pole of the system? What is the 3dB bandwidth? What is the corner frequency?
d. Plot bode plot using approximate methods.
e. Draw pole-zero plot and explain what will happen to zero/poles if we change the time constant?

v. Now the output of sensor needs to be digitized using an 8-bit single-slope Analog-to-Digital converter
with a fs of 2048 samples per sec and an analogue range of -1 V to 11 V. The ADC is a part of a PIC
microcontroller with 2K RAM available. [3x10=30]

a. What is the step size (or vref or resolution) for this ADC? How many levels (or steps) do we have here?
b. What will happen to memory requirements if we double the number of steps?
c. What will happen to memory requirements if we double the sampling frequency?
d. Is it true that an ADC is basically an integrator or a summer? If yes, then what will happen if there is
no input applied? Won’t it sum up the noise - making the ‘sum’ approach infinity?
e. If a sine wave of 5KHz is sampled, then what will be the frequency of discrete-time signal?
f. Since 0 Volts is part of the allowed analogue signal range, how can you tell if it is a zero-volt signal
or just ‘no signal?’
 g. If we detect a frequency of 1Hz after sampling a sine wave, what are possible frequencies of original
analogue signal?
h. Under what conditions, the calibration of an ADC could be affected?
i. What is the analogue signal if digitized value is: i.) 0 ii.) 255
j. Assume the input analog signal is 6 V. Convert it to digital signal. What is the sampled/digitized value?
Now convert it back to analogue voltage. What is the error?

vi. A force of 1000N is applied and then experimenter records 7 readings subsequently that read:
990 N, 982 N, 991 N, 979 N, 995 N, 978 N, 990N
[3x5=15]
a. Apply Thompson’s test to clean up data
b. Plot the PDF of your data. (Define at least four intervals for clarity)
c. What is the: mean, mode and median of your data? Which one of those helps in judging the accuracy
of sensor?
d. What is the: data spread, max random error and random error (i.e. σ)?
e. How many % of data values lie within: 1σ, 2σ, 3σ? Can we classify it as normal pdf on basis of that?