SENSOR v/s TRANSDUCER

The sensor or the sensing element is the first element in a

measuring system and takes information about the variable being
measured and transforms it into a more suitable form to be
measured. The following figure illustrates the difference between
sensor and transducer.
 In a resistance thermometer, the resistance depends on the
temperature value (sensor - primary measuring element). It can be
inserted into a bridge circuit (signal conditioning circuit -
secondary measuring element) in order to transform the change in
the resistance value to a change in the voltage output. Finally, the
output voltage from the bridge circuit express about the
temperature change value. In general, we can say that:

Transducer = primary measuring element + secondary measuring element

i.e. Transducer = Sensor + Signal conditioning circuit
NEED OF SENSOR IN ROBOTICS

The sensors are one of the useful technologies, which play a

vital role in the robotics field. There are four important categories
where uses of sensors are highly required in robotics such as:

Safety monitoring
Interlocking in work cell control
Quality control in work part inspection
Data collection of objects in the robot work cell
Safety monitoring:
The sensors are extremely used in industrial robotics for monitoring the
hazardous and safety conditions in the robot cell layout. This certainly
helps in avoiding the physical injuries and other damages caused to the
human workers.

Interlocking in work cell control:

In robot work cell, the series of activities of different equipments are
controlled by using interlocks. Here, sensors are employed for verifying
the conclusion of the current work cycle before progressing to the next
cycle.

Quality control in work part inspection:

In olden days, the quality control was performed with a manual inspection
system. Nowadays, sensors are employed in the inspection process for
determining the quality features of a work part automatically. A major
advantage of using sensors in this category provides high accurate results.
Data collection of objects in the robot work cell:
Sensors are used in this category to determine the position or other
related data about the fixtures, work parts, equipment, human workers,
and so on. Apart from sensing the position, it is also implemented to find
out the other information like work part’s color, orientation, size, shape,
etc. The key reasons for determining the above information while
executing a robot program includes:

Recognition of work parts

Random position and orientation of work parts
Improved accuracy of robot position using the feedback data
POSITION SENSOR

Position sensors are employed to determine the position of an

object in relation to some reference point. Position Sensors
can detect the movement of an object in a straight line using
Linear Sensors or by its angular movement using Rotational
Sensors.

Contact type
Potentiometer
LVDT
Non contact type
Proximity sensors
Encoders
POTENTIOMETER
Potentiometers are simplest type of position sensors. They can be
used for linear as well as angular position measurement. They are
the resistive type of transducers and the output voltage is
proportional to the displacement and is given by:

Xi is the input displacement,

Xt is the total displacement
and E is the supply voltage.

These sensors are primarily used in the control systems with a feedback
loop to ensure that the moving member or component reaches its
commanded position.
During the sensing operation, a voltage E is applied across the
resistive element. A voltage divider circuit is formed when slider
comes into contact with the wire. The output voltage (eo) is
measured. The output voltage is proportional to the displacement
of the slider over the wire. Then the output parameter
displacement is calibrated against the output voltage eo
Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT)

The term LVDT stands for the linear variable differential

transformer. It is the most widely used inductive transducer that
covert the linear motion into the electrical signals. The output
across secondary of this transformer is the differential so it is
called so.
Construction
•The transformer consists of a primary winding P and two secondary winding S 1 and
S2 wound on a cylindrical former (which is hollow in nature and will contain core).

•Both the secondary windings have equal number of turns and are identically placed
on the either side of primary winding

•The primary winding is connected to an AC source which produces a flux in the

air gap and voltages are induced in secondary windings.

•A movable soft iron core is placed inside the former and displacement to be
measured is connected to the iron core.

•The iron core is generally of high permeability which helps in reducing harmonics
and high sensitivity of LVDT.

•The LVDT is placed inside a stainless steel housing because it will provide
electrostatic and electromagnetic shielding.

•The both the secondary windings are connected in such a way that resulted output
is the difference of the voltages of two windings.
Working
CASE I When the core is at null position (for no displacement)
When the core is at null position then the flux linking with both the
secondary windings is equal so the induced emf is equal in both the
windings. So for no displacement the value of output Vout is zero as
V1 and V2 both are equal. So it shows that no displacement took
place.

CASE II When the core is moved to upward of null position (For

displacement to the upward of reference point) In the this case the
flux linking with secondary winding S1 is more as compared to flux
linking with S2. Due to this V1 will be more as that of V2. Due to this
output voltage Vout is positive.

CASE III When the core is moved to downward of Null position (for
displacement to the downward of reference point). In this case
magnitude of V2 will be more as that of V1. Due to this output Vout
Proximity sensor
Proximity sensors do not actually measure displacement or angular
rotation they are mainly used to detect the presence of an object in
front of them or within a close proximity, hence their name
“proximity sensor”.
Inductive proximity sensor

Inductive proximity switches are basically used for detection of

metallic objects. They comprise of a coil, an oscillator, a detector
and a triggering circuit. An alternating current is supplied to the
coil which generates a magnetic field. When, a metal object comes
closer to the end of the coil, inductance of the coil changes. This
is continuously monitored by a circuit which triggers a switch
when a preset value of inductance change is occurred.
 Inductive proximity sensors allow for the detection
of metallic objects in front of the sensor head without any
physical contact of the object itself being detected. This
makes them ideal for use in dirty or wet environments. The
“sensing” range of proximity sensors is very small, typically
0.1mm to 12mm.

Application

•Industrial automation: counting of products during production or transfer

•Security: detection of metal objects, arms, land mines
Encoders
Encoders are another type of position/displacement non
contact sensor where optical devices are used for converting the
angular position of a rotating shaft into a digital data code. In other
words, they convert mechanical movement into an electrical signal
(preferably digital).

All optical encoders work on the same basic principle. Light

from an LED or infra-red light source is passed through a rotating
high-resolution encoded disk that contains the required code
patterns, either binary, grey code or BCD. Photo detectors scan the
disk as it rotates and an electronic circuit processes the information
into a digital form as a stream of binary output pulses that are fed
to counters or controllers which determine the actual angular
position of the shaft.
Optical Encoders
Optical encoders provide digital output as a result of
linear/angular displacement. These are widely used in the Servo
motors to measure the rotation of shafts. Figure shows the
construction of an optical encoder. It comprises of a disc with three
concentric tracks of equally spaced holes. Three light sensors are
employed to detect the light passing through the holes. These
sensors produce electric pulses which give the angular displacement
of the mechanical element e.g. shaft on which the Optical encoder is
mounted. The inner track has just one hole which is used locate the
‘home’ position of the disc. The holes on the middle track offset
from the holes of the outer track by one-half of the width of the
hole. This arrangement provides the direction of rotation to be
determined.
When the disc rotates in clockwise direction, the pulses in the
outer track lead those in the inner; in counter clockwise direction
they lag behind. The resolution can be determined by the number
of holes on disc. With 100 holes in one revolution, the
resolution
would be, 360⁰/100 = 3.6⁰
Fiber optic position sensor
(non contact)
 Optical displacement sensors work on the basic principle
that the intensity of light decreases with distance. So if the source
and detector are fixed, the amount of light reflected from a moving
surface will depend on the distance of the moving surface from
the fixed ones. Measurement using this principle requires proper
calibration since the amount of light received depends upon the
reflectivity of the surface, intensity of the source etc. Yet it can
provide a simple method for displacement measurement. Optical
fibers are often used to transmit light to and from the measuring
zone. Such a scheme with bundle fibers is shown in Fig. It uses two
bundle fibers, one for transmitting light from the source and the
other to the detector. Light reflected on the receiving fiber bundle
by the surface of the target object is carried to a photo detector. The
light source could be Laser or LED; photodiodes or
phototransistors are used for detection.
Velocity sensors
Working

Tachogenerator works on the principle of variable

reluctance. It consists of an assembly of a toothed wheel and a
magnetic circuit as shown in figure. Toothed wheel is mounted on
the shaft or the element of which angular motion is to be measured.
Magnetic circuit comprising of a coil wound on a ferromagnetic
material core. As the wheel rotates, the air gap between wheel tooth
and magnetic core changes which results in cyclic change in flux
linked with the coil. The alternating emf generated is the measure of
angular motion. A pulse shaping signal conditioner is used to
transform the output into a number of pulses which can be counted
by a counter.
 An alternating current (AC) generator can also be used
as a techognerator. It comprises of rotor coil which rotates with
the shaft. Figure shows the schematic of AC generator. The
rotor rotates in the magnetic field produced by a stationary
permanent magnet or electromagnet. During this process, an
alternating emf is produced which is the measure of the angular
velocity of the rotor. In general, these sensors exhibit
nonlinearity error of about ± 0.15% and are employed for the
rotations up to about 10000 rev/min.
Speed sensors
 The simplest way for speed measurement of a rotating body is
to mount a tachogenerator on the shaft and measure the voltage
generated by it that is proportional to the speed. However this is a
contact type measurement. There are other methods also for
noncontact type measurements. An opaque disc transparent windows at
regular interval is mounted on the shaft whose speed is to be measured.
A LED source is aligned on one side of the disc in such a way that its
light can pass through the transparent windows of the disc. As the disc
rotates the light will alternately passed through the transparent
windows and blocked by the opaque sections. A photo detector fixed
on the other side of the disc detects the variation of light and the
output of the detector after signal conditioning would be a square wave
(as shown) whose frequency is decided by the speed and the number of
holes (transparent windows) on the disc.
Accelerometer

Consistent with Newton's second law of motion (F = ma), as

an acceleration is applied to the device, a force develops which
displaces the mass. The support beams act as a spring, and the
fluid (usually air) trapped inside the cylinder acts as a damper,
resulting in a second order lumped physical system. This is the
source of the limited operational bandwidth and non-uniform
frequency response of accelerometers.
Seismic Accelerometer
When a spring mass damper system is subjected to
acceleration, the mass is displaced, and this displacement of the
mass is proportional to the acceleration. Hence a measure of
displacement of the mass becomes a measure of acceleration (rate
of change of velocity).
a – acceleration,
m/s2
v – velocity, m/s
x – displacement,
The main parts of a seismic accelerometer m
are as follows:

1. A seismic mass is suspended from the housing of the

accelerometer through a spring.
2. A damper is connected between the seismic mass and
the housing of the accelerometer.
3. The seismic mass is connected to an electric
displacement transducer.
 d 2x dx
F = m 2 + c + kx
d t dt
Operation

The accelerometer is fitted on to the structure whose

acceleration is to be measured.
Due the acceleration, the seismic mass experience a
displacement and this displacement of the mass is proportional
to the acceleration.
As the mass is connected to an electric displacement
transducer, the output of the transducer depends on the extent to
which the mass is displaced.
Hence the output of the transducer is calibrated to give a
direct indication of the acceleration characteristics of the
structure.
Common Types of Accelerometers

• Capacitive-Metal beam or micro machined feature produces

capacitance; change in capacitance related to acceleration
• Piezoelectric-Piezoelectric crystal mounted to mass –voltage
output converted to acceleration
• Piezo resistive-Beam or micro machined feature whose
resistance changes with acceleration
• Hall Effect-Motion converted to electrical signal by sensing
of changing magnetic fields
• Magneto resistive -Material resistivity changes in presence of
magnetic field
Range Finder
(Ultrasonic, Laser)
 Range Finder

• Time of Flight
• The measured pulses typically come form ultrasonic,
RF and optical energy sources.
–D = v * t
– D = round-trip distance
– v = speed of wave propagation
– t = elapsed time
• Sound = 0.3 meters/sec

34
 Ultrasonic Range Sensors
• Basic principle of operation:
– Emit a quick burst of ultrasound (50kHz), (human hearing: 20Hz to
20kHz)
– Measure the elapsed time until the receiver indicates that an echo is
detected.
– Determine how far away the nearest object is from the sensor

Bat, dolphin, …
Laser Range Sensors
Applications:
[Link] navigation,
[Link] avoidance
[Link] recover the third dimension for monocular vision.
Different sensing variables

• Heat/temperature

• Touch
• Smell
• Humidity
• Light
• Speech/voice recognition system
 Heat/temperature sensors
A SIMPLIFIED DESCRIPTION OF TEMPERATURE

"Temperature is a measure of the tendency of an object to spontaneously

give up energy to its surroundings. When two objects are in thermal
contact, the one that tends to spontaneously lose energy is at the higher
temperature.“
 Thermistor
Thermistor – a resistor whose resistance changes with temperature

• Resistive element is generally a metal-

oxide ceramic containing Mn, Co, Cu, or
Ni
• Packaged in a thermally conductive glass
bead or disk with two metal leads
• Suppose we have a “1 kΩ thermistor”
• What does this mean?
• At room temperature, the resistance
of the thermistor is 1 kΩ
• What happens to resistance as we
increase temperature?
Negative Temperature Coefficient
• Most materials exhibit a negative temperature
coefficient (NTC)
– Resistance drops with temperature!
 Thermocouple
• Thermocouple – a two-terminal element consisting
of two dissimilar metal wires joined at the end
 The Seebeck Effect
• Seebeck Effect – A conductor generates a voltage when it is
subjected to a temperature gradient
– Measuring this voltage requires the use of a second
conductor material
– The other material needs to be composed of a different
material Nickel-Chromium Alloy
+
The relationship
between
temperature
The voltage difference of the two
difference and dissimilar metals can be measured
voltage varies with and related to the corresponding
materials temperature gradient
VS = SΔT
-
Copper-Nickel Alloy
 Ice Bath Method (Forcing a Temperature)
• Thermocouples measure the voltage difference between two points
• To know the absolute temperature at the hot junction, one must
know the temperature at the Ref junction
• NIST thermocouple
reference tables are
generated with Tref = 0 oC

Vmeas = V(Thot) – V(Tref)

V(Vhot) = Vmeas + V(Tref)

If we know the voltage-

temperature relationship
of our thermocouple, we
could determine the
temperature at the hot
 Resistive Temperature Detector (RTD)

• Two terminal device

• Usually made out of platinum
• Positive temperature coefficient
• Tends to be linear
• R = R0(1+α)(T-T0) where T0 = 0oC
R0 = 100 Ω, α = 0.03385 Ω/ Ω oC
• At 10oC, R = 100(1+0.385)(10) = 103.85 Ω
• Accuracy of 0.01 oC
• EXPENSIVE!
Touch or tactile sensor
A tactile sensor is a device that measures information
arising from physical interaction with its environment

A grid of tactile
Usually an array of discrete sensing elements.
Sensing elements can be many types:

•Resistive: strain gauge, piezo-resistive.

•Capacitive
•Piezoelectric
•& others like (magnetic, optical, conductive rubber,
ultrasonic)
 Resistive Sensing Elements
Strain gauge: a thin film having a metal pattern that
changes resistance when strained.
•Piezoresistive element : Pressure on the element causes
the material to compress, changing it’s resistance

 Advantages: very simple construction, durable, good

dynamic range, easy readout
 Disadvantages: non-linearity, hysteresis, low sensitivity
 Capacitive Sensing Elements
Mechanical deformation changes the capacitance of parallel
conducting plates
 In general, tactile sensors are used to sense the
contact of fingertips of a robot with an object. They are also
used in manufacturing of ‘touch display’ screens of visual
display units (VDUs) of CNC machine tools. Figure shows
the construction of piezo-electric polyvinylidene fluoride
(PVDF)based tactile sensor. It has two PVDF layers separated
by a soft film which transmits the vibrations. An alternating
current is applied to lower PVDF layer which generates
vibrations due to reverse piezoelectric effect. These
vibrations are transmitted to the upper PVDF layer via soft
film. These vibrations cause alternating voltage across the
upper PVDF layer. When some pressure is applied on the
upper PVDF layer the vibrations gets affected and the output
voltage changes. This triggers a switch or an action in robots
or touch displays.
 Smell sensors
Electronic nose

• An electronic nose is a device intended to detect odors

or flavors.

• Over the last decade, “electronic sensing” or “e-sensing”

technologies have undergone important developments
from a technical and commercial point of view. The
expression “electronic sensing” refers to the capability of
reproducing human senses using sensor arrays and pattern
recognition systems
Human smell system and molecules

• The olfatory system has mucus membrane which contains

small segments, nerve cells, the actual sensory organs .
• The dendrites, some type of fiber, are covered from the
nerve cells to nasal cavity with a thin layer of moisture.
• The smell particles are the source of what we smell.
• The moisture dissolves microscopic particles that are
carried in by air from the odor-emitting substance to the
nose The dissolved particles in the mucus stimulate the
olfactory nerve cells through chemical reactions.
 Electronic nose working principle

• A sample delivery system: enables the generation of the

headspace (volatile compounds) of a sample, which is the
fraction analyzed.
• A detection system: which consists of a sensor set, is
the “reactive” part of the instrument. When in contact
with volatile compounds, the sensors react.
• A computing system: works to combine the responses
of all of the sensors, which represents the input for the
data treatment
 Performing analysis
• As a first step, an electronic nose need to be trained with
qualified samples so as to build a database of reference. Then
the instrument can recognize new samples by comparing
volatile compounds fingerprint to those contained in its
databaseto perform analysis.
• Odour handling system
• Sensor array chamber
• Signal conditioning
• Data aquistion
• Signal processing
 Block diagram

Applications :
[Link] dogs to detect to sniff out bombs, drugs, or fugitives.
[Link] environmental contamination and detect hazardous chemicals
3. Identifying chemical spills, diagnose strep infection, hunt for truffles, keep
toast from burning, or detecting bad batches of food or drink .
 Humidity sensors

Humidity measurement finds wide applications in

different process industries. Moisture in the atmosphere must
be controlled below a certain level in many manufacturing
processes, e.g., semiconductor devices, optical fibres etc.
Humidity inside an incubator must be controlled at a very
precision level. Textiles, papers and cereals must be dried to a
standard storage condition in order to prevent the quality
deterioration.
The humidity can be expressed in different ways: (a) absolute
humidity, (b) relative humidity and (c) dew point.

Absolute humidity
Mass of water vapor per unit volume

Relative humidity
ratio of the actual vapor pressure and the saturation vapor
pressure at a certain temperature

Dewpoint temperature
is the temperature to which a gas must be cooled, at
constant pressure, to achieve saturation
 Humidity sensors work by detecting changes that alter
electrical currents or temperature in the air. There are three basic
types of humidity sensors: capacitive, resistive and thermal. All three
types of sensors monitor minute changes in the atmosphere in order
to calculate the humidity in the air.

Capacitive: A capacitive humidity sensor measures relative humidity by

placing a thin strip of metal oxide between two electrodes. The metal
oxide’s electrical capacity changes with the atmosphere’s relative
humidity. Weather, commercial and industries are the major
application areas.

Resistive: Resistive humidity sensors utilize ions in salts to measure

the electrical impedance of atoms. As humidity changes, so does the
resistance of the electrodes on either side of the salt medium.

Thermal: Two thermal sensors conduct electricity based upon the

humidity of the surrounding air. One sensor is encased in dry nitrogen
while the other measures ambient air. The difference between the
two measures the humidity.
 Light sensors
A light sensor is a device that is used to detect light.
Two different types of light sensors such as
[Link]/photoresistor
[Link] diodes

Photoresistor is also called as light dependent resistor

(LDR). It has a resistor whose resistance decreases with
increasing incident light intensity. It is made of a high resistance
semiconductor material, cadmium sulfide (CdS). Photoresistor
follows the principle of photoconductivity which results from
the generation of mobile carriers when photons are absorbed
by the semiconductor material.
 Photo resister
Figure shows the construction of a photo resistor. The CdS resistor
coil (electrodes) is mounted on a ceramic substrate. This assembly is
encapsulated by a resin material. The sensitive coil electrodes are
connected to the control system though lead wires. On incidence of
high intensity light on the electrodes, the resistance of resistor coil
decreases which will be used further to generate the appropriate signal
by the microprocessor via lead wires. Photoresistors are used in
science and in almost any branch of industry for control, safety,
amusement, sound reproduction, inspection and measurement.
 Photo diode
Photodiode is a solid-state device made of Silicon
which converts incident light into an electric current during
reverse biased condition. It consists of a shallow diffused p-n
junction. When photons of energy greater than 1.1eV (the
bandgap of silicon) fall on the device, this light energy is
absorbed and the electron-hole pairs drift apart. The
generated minority carriers reach the junction, they are swept
across by the electric field and an electric current establishes.
Photodiodes are one of the types of photodetector, which
convert light into either current or voltage.
 Figure shows the construction of Photo diode detector. It
is constructed from single crystal silicon wafers. The upper layer is p
layer. It is very thin and formed by thermal diffusion or ion
implantation of doping material such as boron. Depletion region is
narrow and is sandwiched between p layer and bulk n type layer of
silicon. Light irradiates at front surface, anode, while the back
surface is cathode. The incidence of light on anode generates a flow
of electron across the p-n junction causes current to flow which is
the measure of light intensity.
Applications of photodiode
Camera

Medical

Industry

Safety Equipment

Automotive

Communications
Speech/voice recognition sensors

The basic principle of voice recognition involves the fact that

speech or words spoken by any human being cause vibrations in
air, known as sound waves. These continuous or analog waves
are digitized and processed and then decoded to appropriate
words and then appropriate sentences.
Components of a Speech Recognition
System
A speech capturing Device: It consists of a microphone,
which converts the sound wave signals to electrical signals and
an Analog to Digital Converter which samples and digitizes the
analog signals to obtain the discrete data that the computer can
understand.
A Digital Signal Module or a Processor: It performs
processing on the raw speech signal like frequency domain
conversion, restoring only the required information etc.
Preprocessed signal storage: The preprocessed speech is
stored in the memory to carry out further task of speech
recognition.
Reference Speech patterns: The computer or the system
consists of predefined speech patterns or templates already
stored in the memory, to be used as the reference for matching.
Pattern matching algorithm: The unknown speech signal is
compared with the reference speech pattern to determine the
actual words or the pattern of words.
ROBOT VISION
SENSORS
 CAPABILITIES HUMAN VISION MACHINE VISION

1. Distance Good qualitative capabilities Limited capabilities

2. Orientation Good qualitative capabilities Good for 2D

3. Motion Good qualitative capabilities Limited, sensitive to
image blurring
4. Recollection 100% is not possible Its possible
5. Distinguish b/w colors Difficult Easy
6. Minute details Difficult to detect Easy
7. Time delay Negligible Considerable
8. Intelligence More Less
9. Worst environment Not comfortable Comfortable

10. Continuous process More problems Less problems

11. Automation Cannot automate Can automate

MACHINE VISION SYSTEM
• The sensing and digitizing functions involve the input of vision
data by means of camera focused on the scene of interest
• Special lighting techniques – to obtain sufficient contrast for
processing
• Image viewed by Camera stored in computer memory
• The digital image is called a frame of vision data – it is captured
by hardware device called frame grabber.
• Digitization images at the rate of 30 frames per second
• A frame consist of a matrix of data representing – scene sensed
by camera
• The elements of matrix are called picture elements or pixels
• A single pixel is the projection of a small portion of the scene-
which reduces that portion to single value.
• The value is a measure of the light intensity for that element of
the scene.
• Each pixel intensity is converted into a digital value.
• The digital image matrix for each frame is stored and then
subjected to image processing and analysis function for data
reduction and interpretation of image
• An image frame will be threshold to produce a binary image –
various feature measurements – reduce the data representation –
hundred thousand bytes to hundred bytes.
• The resultant feature data can be analyzed in the available time
for action by robot system.
• Various techniques to compute the feature values can be
programmed into the computer to obtain feature descriptors of
the image – which are matched against previously computed
values stored in the computer.
DISADVANTAGES OF HUMAN VISION
ADVANTAGES OF MACHINE VISION
APPLICATIONS OF MACHINE VISION SYSTEM