Sensors and Transducers

Components of Mechatronics Systems

Sensors/Transducers

Actuators

Data Acquisition

Control Unit
 Topics Today
Sensors/Transducers
Characteristics of sensors/Transducers
Sensor
A sensor is an element in a Mechatronics or
measurement system that detects the magnitude of a
physical parameter and changes it into a signal that
can be processed
by the system.
An Example: Strain gauge
 Transducer
Transducers are devices which convert one form of energy to
another form.
Transducer consists of a primary element(sensor) plus a
secondary element(Signal Conditioning element) that
converts the passive change into an active signal change.

Physical
Signal outp
Phenomen
a
Sensor Conditioning
ut
Transducer

Example: With resistance thermometer, the resistance

depends on the temperature value(Sensor).it can be
inserted into bridge circuit(Secondary element) to
convert the change in resistance value to a change in
voltage or change in current value.
Transducer= Sensor+ Signal Conditioning Circuit
Characteristics of
Transducers/Sensors

Linearity Zero Offset

Sensitivity Accuracy
Cross Sensitivity Nonlinearity
Threshold Hysteresis
Resolution Response Time
Range Drift
Full Scale Output Bandtwidth
1-Linearity
 Linear Sensor
Criterion for Linearity
 A Linear Model satisfies the definition of linearity.

Additivety
 Example

Is Linear.

Non Linear
2-Sensitivity
Sensitivity=output/input
 Is the magnitude of output signal for unit input

A=y(x)/x
 Also known as Gain

Why partial Derivative???????

3-Cross Sensitivity
 We define as cross-sensitivity the gain of the sensor
with respect to an unintended stimulus.
4-Threshold
No sensor will respond to arbitrarily small signals.
Signals in the range between zero and the sensor
threshold xmin will not cause the output of the sensor
to change.

The existence of a threshold is related to nonlinearity .

5-Resolution

Smallest magnitude of the measurand that can be

reliably and repetitively detected

0------xmin--------x1--------x2
xmin- 0 = x1-xmin = x2-x1 = Resolution
6-Range
A sensor will fail to respond to stimuli(Input) which
are arbitrarily large.
Range is the difference between maximum and
minimum value of input that the sensor can measure.
What is the range ????if the input is
 7-Full Scale Output
 The maximum output of a sensor is known as Full Scale
output.
 The output(y) of the sensor is maximum when the input

is maximum i.e x=x max .

Sensor
8-Zero offset
 Sensor reading when the input is zero.

The Zero offset is simple to correct by simply

subtracting b0 from y(x).
9-Accuracy
The difference between the apparent value of the
stimulus and the actual value is called the accuracy.

Accuracy = |Actual Value – Measured Value|

10-Non Linearity

The function g(x) describes how much the function

deviates from it’s linearised description.
 Measurement of Non-Linearity
11-Hysteresis
 Hysteresis is the difference between the output
signals for the same magnitude of the measurand
while the measurand is increasing and decreasing.
12-Response Time
The time between the instance the measurand changes
and the instance the output changes completely.
13-Drift
 The extent of change in the output even when the
measurand is constant.
14-Bandwidth
 The range of frequencies of the time-varying
measurand over which the sensor responds reliably.
ANY QUESTION