Course: Sensors and Actuators

Topic: Introduction to Measurements

Course Code: UEI 508

BY
D R . RA JA ROUT
A SSISTA NT PROFESSOR
MEC HA NIC A L ENG INEERING DEPA RTMENT
What is measurement?
• The knowledge of any physical quantity can be verified by measuring the quantity through mechanical,
electrical, or electronics means.

• Through “measurement” one can monitor a process or operation such as environmental condition
through
Physical Quantity Sensors
Temperature Temperature sensors
Pressure Barometer
Wind Speed Anemometer

• However these sensors are factory calibrated to provide us the measured physical quantity.
• The unmeasured physical quantity which is known as “Measurand” compared with “Standard” to
provide actual result
 STRUCTURE OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

 In contact with the  Takes the output of  Takes the output of  This presents the
process and gives an the sensing element the conditioning measured value in a form
output which depends and converts it into a element and converts which can be easily
in some way on the form more suitable for it into a form more recognized by the
variable to be further processing, suitable for observer.
measured. usually a DC signal or presentation.  Examples: Visual display
 Examples: frequency signal.  Examples: ADC, unit (VDU), Monitor,
Thermocouple  Examples: Bridges, Computer System Chart recorder,
Strain gauge Amplifier Alphanumeric display
EXAMPLES
Error in Measurement
• The major challenge in any measurement is to know the error and how much it is deviated from
the standard physical quantity.
•Therefore suitable sensor or measuring unit need to be selected to minimize the error
• Any suitable sensor is chosen based on two characteristics
• Static
• Dynamic

•Static Characteristics: Measurement of quantities that are either constant or vary slowly with
time.
• Measuring a constant or slow varying quantity requires the instrument to satisfy a set of criteria.

•Dynamic Characteristics: Many measurements are concerned with rapidly varying quantities,
and therefore dynamic relation between input and output need to be studied.
• Various performance criteria exist to study the dynamic characteristics
Calibration
• All the static performance criteria are obtained in one form or another by the process called
calibration.
• Static calibration refers to situation where all inputs are kept constant except one. This input is
varied for some range and input-output relation is obtained.
• Similar procedure is applied for all the inputs and overall instrument behaviour is obtained.
Why Necessary?
It allows to check the instrument against the known standard.
The instrument (to be calibrated) should be calibrated against some reference instruments of
higher accuracy. Further, the reference instrument must be calibrated with higher accuracy
instruments. At some point, the calibration is linked to primary standards.
Primary Standard
•A standard that is sufficiently accurate and do not requires calibration.
•Primary standard are used to calibrate other standards referred as working standard.
• An example of primary standard of weight
• International Prototype of Kilogram (IPK): It is the master kilogram and the primary mass standard for
the International System of Units (SI). The IPK is a one kilogram mass of a platinum-iridium alloy (90%
platinum and 10% iridium) maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.

It is an artefact or prototype
that was defined to have a mass
of exactly one kilogram
Primary Standard
•Temperature measurement involves use of a measuring instruments such as
thermometer. Accuracy of these instruments involves basically two step process:

• Compare -- under conditions as close as possible to actual operation, the indication of an

operating instrument with a "working standard" -- a master reference thermometer whose
accuracy is known with very small uncertainty.

• Periodically check the accuracy of the master reference thermometer in accordance with the
manufacturer's instructions -- either by reference to a primary standard of temperature such
as an ice-point accuracy, or by having the instrument re-calibrated at NIST or a respected
testing laboratory.
Primary Standard
Ice-Point Accuracy
• Ensure water purity: ice made from ordinary culinary water is sufficient. However, since most
dissolved minerals affect the freezing point, it is common to use only ice and water that has
been demineralized. For an ice point with less than 0.01 deg C uncertainty, only distilled water,
and ice made from distilled water should be used and the container should be of carefully-
cleaned glass or stainless steel.
• Ensure minimum heat flux: To insure that the sensor being tested is unaffected by ambient
conditions, it should be placed in the center of a relatively large mass of ice and water (normally
two litres or more), well away from the walls of the container, and the container should be
insulated to minimize melting of ice
Primary Standard
Ensure equilibrium: To guard against temperature rise due to insufficient ice, and to insure
against poor heat transfer due to air in the bath, the following procedure is recommended:
1. Fill the container with crushed or chipped ice.
2. Fill the container with water to an overflow condition.
3. Add more ice until ice is tightly paced to bottom of container, allowing water to overflow.
4. Insert sensor to be calibrated and allow temperature to reach equilibrium (normally 5
minutes or more).
5. If test continues more than a few minutes, add more ice periodically, as before, insuring
that ice is packed tightly to bottom of container each time. The goal is to insure that at all
times the sensor is in contact with an ice/water mixture over its entire surface.
 Static Characteristics
• Accuracy
•Static Error
• Precision
• Resolution
• Sensitivity
• Drift
• Dead Zone
Static Characteristics: Accuracy
•Accuracy: The degree of exactness (closeness) of a measurement
compared to the expected value (desired value).
• Point Accuracy: This is the accuracy at only one point and provides no
information about the accuracy at other points.
• Accuracy as “% of true value” or “% of reading accuracy”: It is best if, accuracy is
mentioned in terms of true value.
• Accuracy as “% of scale range”: Generally expressed as some percentage of full
scale. However, when not at full range or far from full range, the accuracy
reduces.

Example of accuracy with

pressure measurement.
Courtesy: Additel
Static Characteristics: Precision
Precision: A measure of the consistency or repeatability of measurements, i.e., successive
readings do not differ.
Example :
X : result and Centre circle : true value
XXX
XXX X X

XXX
XXXX X
XXX
x
x

High accuracy, high precision Low accuracy, high precision Low accuracy, low precision
 STATIC CHARACTERISTICS: Accuracy vs Precision

Accuracy:
Measured
 It the degree of closeness to the true value. values

 From Figure, Instrument 2 is a accurate instrument.

Precision:
 This describes how far measured quantity
True
reproducible as also how close it is to the true value. Value
 From Figure, both Instruments 1 and 2 are Precise
instruments.

Note: All accurate instruments are precise, however all precise instruments
are not accurate. Hence, Instrument 1 is not accurate but precise.
But Instrument 2 is both accurate and precise.
 Static Characteristics: Static Error
• Static Error: Deviation of the true value from the desired value.
• The accuracy of any instrument is measured in terms of error i.e., by how much the measured value is deviated from
the true value
• Let is the measured value, and is the true value. Then the static error is expressed as

• The termis also called absolute static error.

• Relative Static Error: In some cases, absolute error is not sufficient such as is negligible when 1m is the full
scale range. However, the same is not desirable when 10mm is the full scale range. The relative static error
is defined as

 Span/Range: Difference between highest and lowest measurable points, Span= Xmax-Xmin
 Frequency Range: Range within which the instrument provides satisfactory data/ acceptable data with
sufficient accuracy.
Static Characteristics: Static Error
Also the relative accuracy is

% of accuracy=

Example: The expected value of the voltage across a resistor is 80V, and the measured value is 79V.
Calculate (i) absolute error (ii) % error (iii) relative accuracy, and (iv) % of accuracy

Sol. (i) Absolute error=

(ii) % error =
(iii) Relative accuracy=
(iv) % of accuracy= 100xA=98.75%
Accuracy in ADXL335
Static Characteristics: Static Error
Types of static error:
• Gross Errors: There are mainly due to human mistakes in reading or in using the instruments or
error in recording the observations. Error may also occur due to incorrect instrument
configuration or parameters. These errors cannot be treated mathematically.
•Systematic Errors: These errors are due to aging of the instrument, worn parts, or due to
environmental effects.
• Instrumental: Due to change in friction in moving parts, stretching in spring, or reduction in tension due
to improper handling.
• Environmental: Due to environmental factors such as change in temperature, humidity, pressure, or
magnetic field.
• Observational: This is the error while reading the instrument from a meter scale. Reading a meter scale
from extreme left or right add

•Random Errors: Generally an accumulation of large number of small effects in measurements

requiring high accuracy.
Mechanism of moving coil
 Static Characteristics: Resolution
• Resolution: A smallest change to which the instrument will respond. In other words, smallest
input value to which an instrument responds is called resolution.
•Example: A moving coil volt meter has a uniform scale of 100 divisions , the
full scale reading is 200 V and 1/10th of a scale division can be estimated
with certainty. Determine the resolution
• 1 scale division = 2V
Resolution=(1/10)*2V=0.2V
0.2V is the minimum voltage, the instrument can measure.

MPL3115A2 - I2C Barometric Pressure/ Altitude/ Temperature Sensor

ADC resolution [1]

[1] O Oyetoke, A Adedapo,A Microcontroller Based Embedded System Design for Device Automation and Control in Intelligent Buildings, International Journal of Research,
2015
Static Characteristics: Sensitivity
•Sensitivity: The ratio of change in o/p of the instrument to the change in i/p.
• Example: For MP6050 (Gyroscope IC)

MP6050

•Accelerometer ADXL335

ADXL335
Static Characteristics: Drift
• Drift: All calibrations and specifications of an
instrument are only valid under controlled
conditions of temperature, pressure, and so on.
•These standard ambient conditions are usually
defined in the instrument specification. As
variations occur in the ambient temperature,
certain static instrument characteristics change,
and the sensitivity to disturbance is a measure of
the magnitude of this change.
•Such environmental changes affect instruments in
two main ways, known as zero drift and sensitivity
drift
LM35 Temperature Sensor

MPL3115A2 - I2C Barometric Pressure/ Altitude/

Temperature Sensor
Static Characteristics: Dead Zone
•Dead Zone: largest change of input quantity for
which there is no output of the instrument.
• Example: DC Motor
Initially low current may not be sufficient to
overcome the friction, therefore in that case dc
motor wont move
MPL3115A2 - I2C Barometric Pressure/ Altitude/ Temperature Sensor
Dynamic Characteristics
• Dynamic characteristics are
• Speed of response: It is the measure of the output response with which an instrument tracks the input
• Lag: It is the delay in response of an instrument to changes in measured variable.
• Dynamic Error: It is the difference between the true value of a quantity and measured value changing
with time.

Based on dependence of output over input, a measuring instruments are categorized into
• Zero Order
• First Order
• Second Order
Zero Order Instrument
The relations between input and output can be written as,

Let the input is available, then for “Zero Order Instrument” (n=0) i.e.,

or

, where k is the sensitivity.

Zero Order Instrument
First Order Instrument
Substitute n=1, then the above expression becomes

Applying Laplace both sides and input signal is a step input

Applying inverse Laplace Transform

, is the time constant i.e.,

Examples are thermocouple and thermometer.