UNIT III

SENSORS AND MACHINE

VISION

Prepared by
T.Michel Raj
Assistant Professor
Jeppiaar SRR Engineering College
Chennai
 SENSORS
Requirements of a sensor, Principles and Applications of
the following types of sensors – Position of sensors
(Piezo Electric Sensor, LVDT, Resolvers, Optical
Encoders, Pneumatic Position Sensors), Range Sensors
(Triangulation Principle, Structured, Lighting Approach,
Time of Flight Range Finders, Laser Range Meters),
Proximity Sensors (Inductive, Hall Effect, Capacitive,
Ultrasonic and Optical Proximity Sensors), Touch
Sensors, (Binary Sensors, Analog Sensors), Wrist
Sensors, Compliance Sensors, Slip Sensors.
 MACHINE VISION
• Camera, Frame Grabber, Sensing and Digitizing
Image Data – Signal Conversion, Image
Storage, Lighting Techniques. Image
Processing and Analysis – Data Reduction:
Edge detection, Segmentation Feature
Extraction and Object Recognition -
Algorithms. Applications – Inspection,
Identification, Visual Serving and Navigation.
 PIEZOELECTRIC SENSORS
• Piezo electric materials when stretched or
compressed generate electric charges, with one
face of the material becoming positively
charged and the opposite face negatively
charged. As a result voltage is generated.
• Measurement of pressure,force,acceleration
• Piezo material : Quartz, Barium titanate,
Zirconate titanate.
 PIEZOELECTRIC SENSORS
The net charge q = kx =SF
• x – charge displacement
• F – Force applied
• S – Charge Sensitivity
Charge Sensitivity depends on
1.Material concerned(Depends on S Value)
2. Orientation of the crystal
LVDT
CONSTRUCTION & PRINCIPLE
• The LVDT consists of a single primary winding and
two secondary windings wound on a hollow
former.
• The secondary windings have an equal number of
turns but are connected in series opposition so
that emf’s induced in the coils oppose each other.
• The primary winding is connected to an a.c
source, whose frequency range from 50Hz to
20kHz.
CONSTRUCTION & PRINCIPLE
• The position of the movable core determines
the flux linkage between the a.c excited
primary winding and each of the two
secondary windings.

• The core is made up of nickel –iron alloy is

slotted longitudinally to reduce eddy current
loss.
CONSTRUCTION & PRINCIPLE

• The displacement to be measured is applied to an

arm attached to the core. With the core in the
center, or reference, position, the induced EMF in
the secondary winding are equal, and since they
oppose each other, the output voltage will be zero
CONSTRUCTION & PRINCIPLE
• When an externally applied force moves the core to the left-
hand coil. The e.m.f induced in the left hand coil > right
hand coil.
• The magnitude of the output voltage and it is in phase with
the voltage of the left hand coil.
• Similarly, when a core moves to a right
 ADVANTAGES
• Infinite resolution is present in LVDT
• High output
• LVDT gives High sensitivity
• Very good linearity
• Ruggedness
• LVDT Provides Less friction
• Low hysteresis
• LVDT gives Low power consumption.
 DISADVANTAGES
• Very high displacement is required for generating high
voltages.

• Shielding is required since it is sensitive to magnetic field.

• The performance of the transducer gets affected by

vibrations

• Its is greatly affected by temperature changes.

 APPLICATIONS
• LVDTs provide position feedback in hydraulic applications
by monitoring the performance accuracy of actuators and
cylinders to improve operational efficiencies

• Another example is robotic arm picking up a piece of glass.

If the control system does not know when to stop the arm,
based on position feedback from an LVDT, the hydraulic
cylinder could drive the arm right through the piece of glass.