Sensing and Actuation

As a fundamental building block of industrial automation, robotics, cyber-physical systems (CPS), and biomedical instrumentation, sensing and monitoring rely on a wide range of sensors deployed either in situ or in remote environments. This course equips students with the fundamental knowledge and practical skills required to understand sensors, actuators, processes, and electronic signal conditioning and processing systems.

It introduces the operating principles of various sensing technologies and their selection based on functional requirements and performance criteria. Students will learn about common analogue and digital signal processing techniques, simulation methods, data visualization, and analysis approaches through classroom tutorials, case studies, and hands-on demonstrations.

• Provide basic transduction principles and operating principles of sensors and actuators used in a wide variety of real-world applications.
• Present various case-studies involving industrial applications of several types of sensors and actuators.
• To impart knowledge about simulation and characterization for various applications.
• Understand and implement analogue and digital approaches involved in  conditioning/processing stages of a sensing system.
• To equip know-how on building sensor and actuator systems for practical applications.

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After completing this course, students should be able to

• Understand fundamental transduction principles of various types of transducers, sensors and actuators in terms of their performance and characteristics.
• Appraise various sensing and actuation techniques used in industrial processes.
• Build and apply selection criteria for a given application and analyse it for calibration, linearity, hysteresis, sensitivity etc.
• Familiarize with the functional understanding of various components involved in data acquisition, data conditioning/processing and display stages.

• Allocca, AJ, and A Stuart 1984. Transducers: Theory and Application. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Reston. The National Academies Press.
• Horne, DF 1988. Measuring Systems and Transducers for Industrial Applications. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: IOP Publishing.
• John P Bentley 2005, Principles of Measurement Systems, 4th edition, Pearson Education Limited.
• Michael J McGrath, Cliodhna Ní Scanaill, Sensor Technologies (Healthcare, Wellness and Environmental Applications), Springer Link, Open Access 
  https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4302-6014-1

Additional journal/book-chapters references/articles will be provided during the classes as and when required.