Sensors and Actuators

for Automation
(EE 5210)

Lecture : 2

Logeeshan V. (Ph.D.)
Senior Lecturer

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 Sensor Characteristics
• Since most of stimuli are not electrical, from an input to the output,
a sensor may have several energy conversion steps before it
produces and outputs an electrical signal.

• Consider a sensor as a “black box” where we concern only with

relationships between its output electrical signal and input
stimulus. 26
 System
• A system can be defined as an
arrangement of parts within some
boundary which work together to provide
some form of output from a specified
input or inputs.

• The boundary divides the system from the

environment and the system interacts
with the environment by means of signals
crossing the boundary from the
environment to the system.
Input Output
Electric
• A useful way of representing a system is as Electrical Motor Mechanical Energy
a block diagram. Energy
27
 Transfer Function
• An ideal or theoretical input–output (stimulus–response)
relationship exists for every sensor.

• If the input–output function is time

invariant, it is commonly called
transfer function.

• The transfer function represents the

relation between stimulus s and
response electrical signal S produced
by the sensor. This relation can be
written as . 28
 Transfer Function
• An inverse of the transfer function is required to compute
the stimulus from the sensor’s response .

• The value of that becomes known

during the measurement is just a
number that represents the value of
stimulus .

• One of the jobs of the system is to

“break the code S” and infer the
unknown value of from the
measured value of . 29
 Mathematical Model
• It can used to calculate the sensor’s inversed transfer function by
inverting the formula and computing the unknown value of s from
the measured .

• A linear resistive potentiometer is used for sensing displacement ,

an Ohm’s law can be applied to compute the transfer function.

• From this function we can compute displacement d from the

measured voltage v. 30
 Functional Approximations
• The act of approximation can be seen as a curve-fitting of
experimentally observed values to the calculated values of the
approximating function.
• The approximating function should be simple enough for ease of
computation and inversion.

• Note that here assumes that the transfer function passes, at least
theoretically, through zero value of the input stimulus.
• It may be desirable to reference the sensor not to zero but to some
more practical input reference value . 31
 Functional Approximations
• If the sensor response is known for that input reference:

• Very few sensors are truly linear. At least a small nonlinearity is

always present, especially for a broad input range of the stimuli.

• In many cases, when nonlinearity cannot be ignored, the transfer

function can be approximated by a multitude of linear
mathematical functions.
32
 Functional Approximations
• Logarithmic function and the corresponding inverse function are
respectively:

• Exponential function and its inverse are given by :

• Power function and its inverse can be expressed as:

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 Polynomial Approximations
• It should be noted that any continuous function can be
approximated by a power series.

• The exponential function of can be approximately calculated by a

third order polynomial by dropping all the higher terms of its series
expansion.

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 Sensitivity
• The coefficient is called sensitivity:

• For a nonlinear transfer function, sensitivity B is not a fixed number,

as would be the case in a linear transfer function.

• In case of nonlinear transfer functions, the sensitivity is defined as a

first derivative of the transfer function.

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 Linear Piecewise Approximation
• The idea behind it is to break up a nonlinear transfer function of
any shape into sections and consider each such section being linear
as described by equations on slide no 29 & 30.

• It makes sense to select knots

only for the input range of
interest, thus in figure a
section of the curve from 0 to
is omitted as being outside
of the required span limits.

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 Linear Piecewise Approximation
• An error of a piecewise approximation can be characterized by a
maximum deviation of the approximation lines from the real
curve.

• There exist different definitions of this maximum deviation but

whatever the adopted metric, the larger calls for greater number
of samples, that is larger number of sections with the idea of
making this maximum deviation acceptably small.

• The knots do not need to be equally spaced. They should be closer

to each other where a nonlinearity is high and farther apart where
a nonlinearity is small. 37
 Spline Interpolation
• The approximation by higher order
polynomials have some
disadvantages:
 selected points at one side of the
curve make strong influence on the
remote parts of the curve

• This deficiency is resolved by the

spline method of approximation.

• Spline uses a different 3rd order polynomial interpolation between

the selected experimental points called knots. 38
 Spline Interpolation
• It is a curve between two neighboring knots and then all curves are
“stitched” or “glued” together to obtain a smooth combined curve
fitting.
• In fact, not necessarily it should be a 3rd-order curve it can be as
simple as the 1st order (linear) interpolation.

• Curvature of a line at each point is defined by the 2nd derivative.

• If the 2nd derivatives are zero, the cubic spline is called “relaxed”
and it is the choice for many practical approximations.
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 Calibration
• if one needs to measure temperature with accuracy and
the available sensor is rated as having accuracy of it does
not mean that the sensor cannot be used.
• Rather this particular sensor needs calibration.

• That is, its unique transfer function should be

found to fit the real sensor’s response or the
specific transfer function parameters should
be adjusted to allow for a more accurate
computation of the stimulus from the
sensor’s response.
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 Calibration
• it is sufficient to calibrate only at a few sample points (stimuli) that
are generated by a known reference source.

• In calibration, several input stimuli are paired with the

corresponding output electric responses and the resulting pairs are
plugged into the inverted transfer function to compute its
parameters.
• After the function parameters are
established and stored, the sensor is
ready for use.
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 Calibration
• Calibration of a sensor can be done in several possible ways, some
of which are the following.
 Calculation of the transfer function or its approximation to fit the selected
calibration points

 Adjustment of the data acquisition system to trim (modify) the measured

data by making them to fit into a normalized or “ideal” transfer function

 Modification (trimming) of the sensor’ properties to fit the predetermined

transfer function

 Creating a sensor-specific reference device with matching properties at

particular calibrating points 42
Calibration

43
Calibration

44
Computation of Transfer Function Parameters
• If a model of a transfer function is linear, then the calibration should
determine constants A and B, if it is exponential the constants A and
k should be determined, and so on.

• To calculate coefficients of the linear transfer function one needs

two calibrating input–output pairs.

 Consider a simple linear transfer function given bellow. Since two points
are required to define a straight line, a two-point calibration shall be
performed.

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Computation of Transfer Function Parameters
• If one uses a forward-biased semiconductor p–n junction as a
temperature sensor, its transfer function is linear.

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Computation of Transfer Function Parameters
• For nonlinear transfer functions, calibration at one data point may
be sufficient only in some rare cases, but often two and more input–
output pairs would be required.

47
Computation of Transfer Function Parameters
• To solve this system for the parameters, first one computes the
determinants of the systems:

If the determinant of the system is

small some considerable inaccuracy
will result. 48
 Calibration
• Calibration is the process of comparing the output of a measurement system against
standards of known accuracy.

• The standards may be other measurement systems which are kept specially for calibration
duties, or some means of defining standard values.

• Calibration should be carried out

using equipment which can be
traceable back to national standards
with a separate calibration record
kept for each measurement
instrument.

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Calibration

50
 Calibration
• The national standards are defined by international agreement and are maintained by
national establishments.
• The National Physical Laboratory in Great Britain
• The National Bureau of Standards in the United States.

• There are seven such primary standards, and two

supplementary ones, the primary ones being:

1. Mass: The mass standard, the kilogram, is defined

as being the mass of an alloy cylinder (90%
platinum-10% iridium) of equal height and
diameter, held at the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures at Sevres in France.
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 Calibration
2. Length: The length standard, the metre, is
defined as the length of the path travelled by
light in a vacuum during a time interval of
duration 1/299 792 458 of a second.

3. Time: The time standard, the second, is

defined as a time duration of 9 192 631 770
periods of oscillation of the radiation emitted
by the caesium-133 atom under precisely
defined conditions of resonance.

4. Current: The current standard, the ampere, is defined as that constant current
which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of
negligible circular cross-section, and placed one metre apart in a vacuum, would
produce between these conductors a force equal to per metre of length.
52
 Calibration
5. Temperature: The kelvin (K) is the unit of
thermodynamic temperature and is defined
so that the temperature at which liquid water,
water vapour and ice are in equilibrium
(known as the triple point) is .

6. Luminous intensity: The candela is defined as the

luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a specified
source that emits monochromatic radiation of
frequency and that has a radiant
intensity of watt per unit steradian.

7. Amount of substance: The mole is defined as the amount of a substance which

contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kg of the carbon 12
isotope. 53
 Calibration
8. Plane angle: The radian is the plane angle
between two radii of a circle which cuts off on
the circumference an arc with a length equal
to the radius.

9. Solid angle: The steradian is the solid angle of

a cone which, having its vertex in the centre
of the sphere, cuts off an area of the
surface of the sphere equal to the square of
the radius
• Primary standards are used to define national standards, not only in the primary
quantities but also in other quantities which can be derived from them.
• For example, a resistance standard of a coil of manganin wire is defined in terms of the
primary quantities of length, mass, time and current. 54
 Calibration
• The equipment used in the calibration of an instrument in
everyday company use is likely to be traceable back to national
standards in the following way:

1. National standards are used to calibrate standards for

calibration centers.

2. Calibration centre standards are used to calibrate

standards for instrument manufacturers.

3. Standardized instruments from instrument

manufacturers are used to provide in-company
standards.

4. In-company standards are used to calibrate process

instruments. 55
 Calibration
• There is a simple traceability chain from the instrument used in a
process back to national standards. In the case of, say, a glass bulb
thermometer, the traceability might be:

1. National standard of fixed thermodynamic temperature

points.

2. Calibration centre standard of a platinum resistance

thermometer with an accuracy of .

3. An in-company standard of a platinum resistance

thermometer with an accuracy of

4. The process instrument of a glass bulb thermometer with

an accuracy of .
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