Introduction to Control System Technology

(ME-2009)

Sensors

Phung Thanh Huy

Department of Mechatronics
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
Version 2024.1

Ho Chi Minh City – 2024

Sensors and Measurement
Review of Measurement
• Measurement is the result of an opinion formed by one more observer about
the relative size or intensity of some physical quantity, which formed by the
observer after comparing the object with a quantity of the same kind chosen
as a unit, called standard.
• The division of engineering science that deals with measuring techniques,
devices, and their associated problems is called instrumentation.

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Sensors and Measurement
Review of Measurement
• In measurement systems, the following points need to be emphasized:
• No measurement is exact.
• Measurement should be accurate – measured values should be close to
the actual values.
• Measurement processes should be precise – measured values should be
close to each other.

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Sensors and Measurement
Direct and Indirect Measurements
• Direct Measurement: The value of the physical parameter (measurand) is
determined by comparing it directly with reference standards.
• Direct measurements are not to be preferred because they involve
human factors, are less accurate and are also less sensitive.
• Further, the direct methods may not always be possible, feasible, and
practicable.
• Indirect Measurement: The value of the physical parameter (measurand) is
more generally determined by indirect comparison with secondary standards
through calibration.
• The measurand is converted into an analogous signal which is
subsequently processed and fed to the end device that presents the
result of measurement.
• The indirect technique saves the primary or secondary standards from
frequent and direct handling.
• The accuracy of each approach is apparently traceable to the primary
standard via secondary standard and the calibration.

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Sensors in control system
Sensors and Transducers
• Sensor is a device that when exposed to a physical phenomenon
(temperature, displacement, force, etc.) produces a proportional
output signal (electrical, mechanical, magnetic, etc.)
• A sensor is a device that responds to a change in the physical
phenomenon.
• A transducer is a device that converts one form of energy into
another form of energy
• Sensors and transducers produce feedback information in a closed-
loop control system.
• The signals from the sensors/ transducers are usually electrical
signals.

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Sensors in control system
Sensors and Measurement

+ →

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• A potentiometer (pot) can be used to convert rotary or linear displacement to
a voltage.
• The pot itself gives resistance, the resistance is converted into the voltage by
using voltage divider.
𝑅𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡
= =
𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑉𝑖𝑛

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• A pot is supplied with 10 V and is set at 82°. The range of this single-turn pot is
350°. Calculate the output voltage.

• If the pot is supplied 10 V, then the maximum angle of 350° will produce a 10-V
output.

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• Loading error:
• To work properly the same current must flow through the entire pot
resistance.
• A loading error occurs when the pot wiper is connected to a circuit with
an input resistance that is not considerably higher than the pot’s
resistance.
• To solve this problem, a high-impedance buffer circuit such as the
voltage follower can be inserted between the pot and the circuit it must
drive.

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• A 10-kΩ pot is used as a position sensor (Figure 6.3). Assume that the wiper is
in the middle of its range. Find the loading error when
a) The interface circuit presents an infinite resistance.
b) The interface circuit presents a resistance of 100 kΩ.

a)

b)

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• Linear error:
• the total rotary movement to be measured is less than a full evolution.

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• A single-turn pot (350°) has a linearity error of 0.1% and is connected to a 5
VDC source. Calculate the maximum angle error that could be expected from
this system.

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• Resolution:

• For wire-wound potentiometer with N rounds:

𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡
Δ𝑅 =
𝑁
100
%resolution = 𝑁

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• The robot arm rotates 120° stop-to-stop and uses a pot as the position
sensor. The controller is an 8-bit digital system and needs to know the actual
position of the arm to within 0.5°. Determine if the setup will do the job.

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Position sensors
Potentiometers
• The pot is supplied with 5 V. Therefore, the output of the pot would be 5 V for
the maximum pot angle of 350°.
• The reference voltage of the ADC (analog-to-digital converter) is also set at 5
V; thus, if the pot voltage (Vpot) is 5 V, the digital output would be 255
(11111111bin).

• To get maximum resolution from the ADC, the pot should send 5 V to the ADC
when the pot is 240°. This will require raising the pot supply voltage to 7.3 V.

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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• Absolute optical encoders use a glass disk marked off with a pattern of
concentric tracks.
• A separate light beam is sent through each track to individual photo sensors.
Each photo sensor contributes 1 bit to the output digital word.
• Advantage: the output is in straightforward digital form and always gives the
absolute position.
• Disadvantage: relatively expensive because it requires that many photocells be
mounted and aligned very precisely.
1
Resolution: 2𝑛, n-bit

4-bit

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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• If the absolute optical encoder is not properly aligned, it may occasionally
report completely erroneous data.
• One solution is to use the Grey code on the disk instead of the straight binary
code. Only 1-bit changes per time.
Decimal Binary code Gray code
0 000 000
1 001 001
2 010 011
3 011 010
4 100 110
5 101 111
6 110 101
Original For Grey Code
7 111 100

• The error can never be more than the value of 1 LSB when using the Grey code
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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• The incremental optical encoder has only one track of equally spaced slots
(sometimes two – A, B).
• Position is determined by counting the number of slots that pass by a photo
sensor, where each slot represents a known angle.
• This system requires an initial reference point, which may come from a second
sensor on an inner track or simply from a mechanical stop or limit switch.

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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• An incremental encoder has 360 slots. Starting from the reference point, the
photo sensor counts 100 slots clockwise (CW), 30 slots counterclockwise
(CCW), then 45 slots CW. What is the current position?

If the disk has 360 slots, then each slot

represents 1° of rotation. Starting at the
reference point, we first rotated 100°
CW, then reversed 30° to 70°, and finally
reversed again for 45°, bringing us
finally to 115° (CW) from the reference
point.

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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• The hardware of the incremental encoder is simpler than for the absolute type.
• The price paid for that simplicity is that we do not get direct binary position
information from V1 and V2.
• Instead, a decoder circuit must be employed to convert the signals from the
photo sensors into a binary word.

• A position-sensor system uses a 250-slot

disk. The current value of the counter is
00100110. What is the angle of the shaft
being measured?
• For a 250-slot disk, each slot represents
360°/250 = 1.44°, and a count of
00100110 = 38 decimal, so the position is
38 × 1.44° = 54.72°.
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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• Interfacing the Incremental Encoder to a Computer:

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Position sensors
Rotary Encoder
• Rotary to linear motion

• A, B, Z chanels

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Position sensors
Linear Variable Differential Transformers
• The linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) is a high-resolution position
sensor that outputs an AC voltage with a magnitude proportional to linear
position.
• It has a relatively short range of about 2 in., but it has the advantage of no
sliding contacts.
• The center winding, or primary, is connected to an AC reference voltage.
• The outer two windings, called secondaries, are wired to be out of phase with
each other and are connected

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Position sensors
Linear Variable Differential Transformers
• Displacement: amplitude oft the AC voltages.
• Direction: phases.
• To the left: phase 0𝑜 .
• To the right: phase 180𝑜 .

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Position sensors
Linear Variable Differential Transformers

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Velocity sensors
From rotary encoder

• A rotating machine part has a pot position sensor connected through an ADC
such that LSB = 1°. Determine how to use this setup to get velocity data.
1. Select the sample time Δ𝑡
2. Check the angle at 2 times 𝑡, 𝑡 + Δ𝑡 .
3. Calculate the speed.

Circuit for counting

slot-cycle time (for
determining velocity
from an incremental
encoder).

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• The optical tachometer, a simple device, can determine a shaft speed in terms
of revolutions per minute (rpm).
• A photo sensor is mounted in such a way as to output a pulse each time the
stripe goes by.
• The period of this waveform is inversely proportional to the rpm of the shaft and
can be measured using a counter circuit like that described for the optical shaft

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• A toothed-rotor tachometer consists of a stationary sensor and a rotating,
toothed, iron-based wheel.

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• A toothed-rotor sensor has 20 teeth. Find the revolutions per minutes (rpm) if the
sensor outputs pulses at 120 Hz.

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• A direct current tachometer is essentially a DC generator that produces a DC
output voltage proportional to shaft velocity.
• The output polarity is determined by the direction of rotation.
• Typically, these units have stationary permanent magnets and the rotating part
consists of coils.

CK20-A tachometer

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• Interfacing tachometers

CK20-A tachometer

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers
• Motor with a piggyback tachometer has a built-in gear box with a ratio of
100 : 1 (that is, the output shaft rotates 100 times slower than the
motor).
• The tachometer is a CK20-A with an output of 3 V/Krpm. This unit is
driving a machine tool with a maximum rotational velocity of 60°/s.
a. What is the expected output of the tachometer?
b. Find the resolution of this system if the tachometer data were
converted to digital with an 8-bit ADC

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers

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Velocity sensors
Tachometers

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Proximity Sensors
Limit switch
• A proximity sensor simply tells the controller whether a moving part is at a
certain place.
• A limit switch is a mechanical push-button switch that is mounted in such a
way that it is actuated when a mechanical part or lever arm gets to the end of its
intended travel.

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors
• Optical proximity sensors, sometimes called interrupters, use a light source
and a photo sensor that are mounted in such a way that the object to be
detected cuts the light path.
• Four types of photodetectors are in general use: photo resistors, photodiodes,
photo transistors, and photovoltaic cells.

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors
• A photo resistor, which is made out of a material such as cadmium sulfide
(CdS), has the property that its resistance decreases when the light level
increases.
• A photodiode is a light-sensitive diode. A little window allows light to fall directly
on the PN junction where it has the effect of increasing the reverse-leakage
current.

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors
• A photo transistor has no base lead. Instead, the light effectively creates a base
current by generating electron-hole pairs in the CB junction—the more light, the
more the transistor turns on.
• The photovoltaic cell is different from the photo sensors discussed so far
because it actually creates electrical power from light—the more light, the
higher the voltage. (A solar cell is a photovoltaic cell.)

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors
• Emitter and receiver

Opposed sensing mode

Retro-reflective sensing mode

Proximity sensing mode

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors

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Proximity Sensors
Optical Proximity Sensors
• Slotted coupler (optointerrupter)

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Proximity Sensors
Hall-Effect Proximity Sensors
• Used to detect magnetic field, coils,

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Proximity Sensors
Inductive proximity sensor
• Main components: coil wound around an iron core, oscillator circuit, current
sensing circuit, and semiconductor switch.

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Proximity Sensors
Inductive proximity sensor
• Main components: coil wound around an iron core, oscillator circuit, current
sensing circuit, and semiconductor switch.

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Proximity Sensors
Capacitive proximity sensor
• Used to sense objects based on the object's ability to charge.
• Can sense the presence of all types of objects (metallic as well as non-metallic,
e.g. wood, paper, water, plastic ...).
• Main components: oscillator circuit, current sensing circuit, 1 internal electrode,
and semiconductor switch.

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Load Sensors
Stress and strain – Force and deformation
• Load sensors measure mechanical force. The forces can be large or small.
• In most cases, it is the slight deformation caused by the force that the sensor
measures, not the force directly.

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Load Sensors
Bonded-Wire Strain Gauges

If all the resistors are equal

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Load Sensors
Bonded-Wire Strain Gauges

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Load Sensors
Bonded-Wire Strain Gauges
A strain gauge and bridge circuit are used to measure the tension force in a bar
of steel that has a cross-sectional area of 13 cm2. The strain gauge has a
nominal resistance of 120 Ω and a GF of 2. The bridge is supplied with 10 V.
When the bar is unloaded, the bridge is balanced so the output is 0 V. Then
force is applied to the bar, and the bridge voltage goes to 0.0005 V. Find the
force on the bar.

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