Instrumentation

Engineering
Enrique Iborra
Jesus Sangrador
Marta Clement
Jimena Olivares
Introduction
Instrumentation
Systems
Outline

1. Definition
2. Fields of application
3. Parts of an instrumentation system
1. Transducer
2. Signal conditioning circuits
3. Data transmission circuits
4. Control systems
5. Display systems
6. Actuator
4. Properties of instrumentations systems
5. Calibration and certification
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Definition
Definition
Instrumentation
 Branch of engineering dealing with measurement and control…

 Art and science of measurement and control…

 Technology that services any human effort (sciences, engineering,

medicine, etc. )

 Electronic instrumentation is the application of the measurement

technology to all fields related to electronics

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Preferred definition
Instrumentation
Window to reality of what is actually happening in real process, which
will allow us to know and monitor its evolution (measurement) or to
interact with it to direct it towards a desired point (control).

Electronic instrumentation
Set of elements allowing us to carry out these two functions (measuring,
controlling) by electronic means

Instrumentation = Electronic Instrumentation System (EIS)

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Fields of application
Fields of application
Industrial processes
Automation and control of any kind of industrial process is increasingly
frequent. Modern factories are controlled from a unique centre that
receives the information of all the processes and adjusts the production
parameters. There is an infinity of sensors, being the communication
with them one of the main problems to deal with.

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Fields of application
Automotive sector
Is a clear example of the increasing presence of EIS in our daily lives.
 Electronics systems in cars improve safety and energetic efficiency.
 Significant effort is devoted to developing self-driving vehicles that
will play a crucial role in improving transportation safety and
accelerating the world’s transition to a sustainable future.

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Fields of application
Medicine. Complex EIS for surgery, monitoring
Surgery Monitoring and Diagnosis
Da Vinci surgical tool enables to
operate through small incisions with
enhanced 3D vision, precision and
control by actuating instruments
that translate surgeon’s hand
movements into smaller, precise
movements of tiny instruments
inside the human body

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Fields of application
Medicine. Specific sensors for early diagnosis of diseases
Advantages; disposable, easy to use by non-expert users, point of care
testing, cheap (reduces travel costs and hospital occupancy rates)

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Fields of application
Medicine. Drug delivery electronic systems
Example: IntelliCap® system (by Medimetrics) for precise delivery of
drugs in the gastro-intestinal tract, the measurement and reporting of
conditions in the body, and sampling of gut fluids. It is the world’s first
and only smart oral electronic drug delivery system.

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Fields of application
Agriculture
Agricultural and livestock production benefit from control and
automation of processes: irrigation, cattle monitoring, dosage of
fertilisers etc.

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Fields of application
Home automation (Domotics)

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Fields of application
Consumer electronics
EIS have burst into our daily lives: mobile phones with increasing
number of functions, body monitoring and positioning systems (sport),
audio and video systems, toys, electrical appliances…

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Fields of application
Scientific research
Benefits from the outstanding development of
electronics that enables manufacturing
increasingly complex tools.
Functional materials: new production
systems, sophisticated characterization tools
Astrophysics: complex observation systems
mounted in satellites

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Parts of an Electronic
Instrumentation
System
 Parts of EIS

Sensors Signal conditioner Data transmitter

Interference
Objective

System,
plant or
Control Display
process

Alarms

Actuators Signal conditioner Order transmitter

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Terminology
Transducer (general)
Physical device that converts energy of a given form (mechanical,
thermal, chemical, magnetic, electric, electromagnetic) to another
form or energy. It is an energy converter.
Sensor (input transducer)
Transducer that converts a physical quantity in a measurable electrical
signal. It is the basis of the electronic instrumentation. A sensor is
frequently made of various sensors (primary y secondary). Example:
diaphragm and extensometer gauge in a train sensor.
Actuator (output transducer)
Transducer that converts an electrical signal to another physical
quantity. Example: motor, electrovalve, etc.

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Terminology
Conditioner circuit
Circuit that adapts the signal of the transducer to the rest of the
instrument. Functions; amplification, level displacement, filtering,
impedance matching, modulation and demodulation, A/D conversion
Data transmitter
Circuit that enables the transmission of the data (raw data or
conditioned data) to the control center and display
Display
Physical element that provides the user with information. Man-machine
interface
Control
Circuit (usually digital) capable of taking decisions (according to the
information given by the sensors) to actuate the output circuit
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Examples of EIS
Thermometer
Instrument for monitoring the temperature of a physical system

Thermocouple Amplifier Linearizer

Display A/D Converter

Instrument

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Examples of EIS
Temperature controller
Instrument for knowing and set the temperature of a physical system

Thermocouple Amplifier Linearizer

Microcontroller
Heater A/D Converter
with software

Display
Instrument

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Sensor (input transducer)
Sensors are devices that detect and respond to stimulus from the
physical environment with electrical signals that are converted to
human-readable signals at the sensor location or transmitted
electronically over a network for reading or further processing.

 They require little or null supply of energy (since electric

signals can be amplified)
 They can be designed for any non-electric physical quantity
 They can be simple (strain gauge) or very complex systems
(smart sensors)
 Sometimes, we call “sensor” the combination of the
transducer + electronic circuits to condition and transmit the
signal to the control unit (using cabling or by wireless means)
+ display.

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Sensor classification
Classification of sensors according to con different criteria
Criterion Types Examples
Modulators
Thermistors
(active sensors)
Energy supply
Self-generators
Thermocouples
(passive sensors)
Analog Potentiometer
Output signal
Digital Position encoder
Deflection
Operation Deflection sensors
accelerometer
mode
Null-type sensors Servo-accelerometer
Input-output Zero order Potentiometer
relationship 1st, 2nd, 3rd order thermometer

Self generating sensors do not use external power supply source but provide
an electrical output when stimulated with some physical form of energy.
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Types of sensors
According to the measurand
Temperature, flow, pressure, level, humidity, pH, odour, chemical
composition, density, strain, velocity, acceleration, torque,

According to the electrical output

 Resistance: they undergo changes in their electrical resistance as a
function of the variation of physical magnitudes (thermo-, piezo-,
photo-, magneto-resistors)
 Capacitance: they undergo changes in their electrical capacitance
(geometry or dielectric constant)
 Frequency: they are resonant systems that undergo changes in their
resonant frequency when stimulated with some physical magnitude
 Number of pulses: systems that responds with pulses

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Conditioning circuits
Electronic circuits that manipulate analog signals from
sensors in such a way that they meet the requirements
of the next stage for further processing
 Sensor excitation circuits (current sources, oscillators…)
 Amplifiers (V, I, logarithmic, integrators…)
 Converters (I-V, R-V, C-V, L-V, etc.)
 A/D y D/A converters
 Analog filters (active, passive)
 Square shapers and pulse discriminators
 Analog frequency meters (integrators)
 Modulators
 Power or motor controllers

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Transmitter circuits
Electronic circuits that transmit the electrical signals to
the next stages (control unit, actuator) for further
processing
Very dependent on the distance between the stages and ambient
(noise, transmission media, etc. )
 Basic thread systems (with wires), current loops
 Optical transmission systems (fibre optic, laser link, IR…)
 RF transmission systems
 AM o FM modulation and amplitude of pulse width codification
 Digital based on series protocols (RS232) over AM o FM modulation
 ISM bands (industrial, scientific and medical)
 Standard digital systems such as WIFI o Bluetooth.
 Mobile phones
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Control systems (automatic)
Decision control systems allowing to
control a process as a function of the
measurements in order to make it
meet some requirements

• Programmable logic controller (PLC).

Simple inputs and outputs. Loop control
with alarms. Little decision power.
• Microcontrollers. Integrated systems with
A/D and D/A converters, digital lines and
specific communication
• Digital signal processor (DSP). Allow
filtering and conditioning signal in real
time. They are sometimes combined with
converters and communication systems
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Control circuits
 Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA)
Provide high customising level. Save space
and production costs. Combine hardware
design with software, optimising the chip
functions
 High level systems (computers). Used in
very big EIS (a whole fab) or in highly
varying systems (systems for
characterization and validation of
equipment)
• Modularity (extension and
reconfiguration of systems en uso)
• Communication buses with
instruments
• Applications for instrumental control
(LabVIEW, VEE, Matlab, etc.)
• Industrial control systems (SCADA)
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Displays
Man-machine interfaces allowing us to know the status
of an EIS (not always necessary)
 Needle analog systems. Clearly show trends but little precise
 Numeric displays
 Alphanumeric matrices
 LCD displays

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Smart sensors
Subsystems that include the sensor, the
associated conditioning electronics, and
most of the data transmission circuits
• Different degrees of intelligence (from a simple
amplifying system to integrated standard
communication systems)
• Sensors integrated with both excitation and
conditioning circuits in the same chip

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Smart sensors
Frequently used in sensors networks (marine and
environment control, control of migrations)

Telemetry
 Measurements in hard-to access areas (oil
wells, furnaces, inside plane motors, inside car
wheels…)
 Measurements of moving animals (migration
control, farming…)
 Control of physiologic parameters (blood
pressure, glucose, heart rate…)
 Environmental control (water balloons,
reconnaissance drones…)

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Characteristics of EISs
EISs characteristics
EISs characteristics have to be known to choose the instrument
most suited to a given application. The performance characteristics
may be divided into two groups, namely static and dynamic
characteristics.

Static characteristics are the performance criteria to measure

quantities that remain constant or vary only quite slowly

Dynamic characteristics are related to the relationship between the

system input and output when the measured quantity varies rapidly

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Static characteristics
EISs are characterised by a series of properties. Among others,

 Calibration curve, standards  Resolution

 Sensitivity  Stability
 Accuracy  Reliability
 Precision  Hysteresis, inertias
 Linearity  Repeatability
 Environmental effects

They guarantee the users that the EIS is reliable. All the elements of
an EIS have to be designed in order to improve, to the extent
possible, these properties

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Dynamic characteristics
Static characteristics are associated to the system performing in
the steady state. However, the presence of inertias (mass,
inductances), capacities (electrical and thermal) and elements
capable of storing energy make the system response to stimulus
different from the static one:
• Speed of response: is defined as the rapidity with which a
systems responds to changes in the measured quantity (shows
how fast the system is)
• Fidelity: degree to which a measurement system is capable of
faithfully reproduce the changes in input, without any dynamic
error
• Dynamic error: difference between the true value of a quantity
and the measured value, if no static error is assumed

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Calibration
Calibration is the comparison of measurement values delivered by
the device under test with those of a calibration standard of known
accuracy and greater precision than the calibrated instrument. In
other words, calibrate means determining the deviation between
the measured value of the output signal and the value that this
signal should have with an ideal transfer characteristic and a given
input value.
Calibration standards have to be in turn calibrated with other better
standards. Traceability of measurement requires the establishment
of an unbroken chain of comparisons to stated references each with
a stated uncertainty, being the last the primary standard.
Most countries have National Measurement Institutes that maintain
primary standards, which provides the highest level of standards for
the calibration and measurement traceability infrastructure in that
country.

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Adjustment
Calibration does not involve technical intervention at the measuring
instrument, such as zero adjustment, span and linearity setting, etc.

Timely calibration of instruments may highlight the alteration of the

measured value (temporal drifts) and thus, an adjustment can be
carried out to compensate them. The more exact the instrument, the
more frequent the calibration process

Adjustment means setting or alignment of instrument so that the

measuring deviations are made as small as possible or that the
magnitudes of the measuring deviations do not exceed the error
limits. The adjustment, therefore, requires an intervention which, in
most cases, permanently alters the measuring instrument
(repositioning the pointer or fitting a new dial).

Never mistake calibration with measurement adjustment

Pre adjustment calibration  adjustment  calibration

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Certification
Industry has demanding requirements in respect of the
performance and function of its measuring instruments and other
equipment.
 Instrumental systems have to be certified for their use in trade,
laboratories, process industries, medical applications…
Certification is an external evaluation that verifies and certifies
that an instrumentation system meets the quality standards
specified in its rules. Certification includes calibration, user safety,
electromagnetic compatibility to prevent electromagnetic
interferences (EMI), usage protocols.
Most of these rules are issued by the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) or other national agencies, such as ENAC or
AENOR in Spain.

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Duties of a I. Engineer
Challenge: To be capable of operating successfully an instrumental
system in harsh environments, i.e. in presence of “physical and
electromagnetic noise”, without loosing relevant information.

 Identification of the application (including the final cost of the

product)
 Selection of the most appropriate sensor/transmitter
 Selection of the final control element
 Selection of the type of control procedure
 Design of the installation
 Installation, start-up, and system calibration
 Verification of the reliability
 Use and maintenance
 Optimisation

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Conclusions

An electronic instrumental system is a system capable of

monitoring and controlling a process, starting with the
measurement of its physical parameters using sensors, and
acting over the elements that control the systems by means of
actuators, in an intelligent manner in order to reach some
goals.
An instrumental system is characterized by its accuracy and
reliability, which means that human action is removed to a
significant extent in many industrial or domestic process.
Keeping these characteristics requires that the systems meet a
series of quality standards that must be periodically verified
through calibration and verification processes.

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