SENSORS & ACTUATORS

Robotics Club
(Science and Technology Council, IITK)

PRESENTED BY
HUMANOID IIT KANPUR

October 11th, 2017

 WHAT ARE WE GOING TO LEARN !!

● COMPARISON between Transducers Sensors And Actuators.

● Brief description About Sensors, Types of Sensors, Classifications .
● Actuators and it’s working.
● COMPUTER PROCESS CONTROL SYSTEM.

● Analog To Digital Convertor.

● Sampling ,Quantization, Encoding.

Transducer
Any device that convert one form of energy to another.
Sensors
Devices that measures physical quantities
and convert them into signals which can be
read by instruments
Actuators
Devices that actuates or moves something.More specifically, they converts
energy into motion or mechanical energy
SENSORS
 Classification of Sensors

In passive sensing, sensor measures the energy that is naturally available, such as thermal
infrared, surface emissions.

In active sensing, sensors provides energy on their own as a source of illumination. The energy
reflected by the target is detected and measured.

Note: The above two terms are used with the perspective of remote sensing.

Source:
http://wtlab.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~wataru/lecture/rsgis/rsnote/cp2/cp2-1.htm
 Active vs. Passive Sensors

Active Sensor Passive Sensor

 What makes a good sensor?
• Precision: An ideal sensor produces same output for
same input. It is affected by noise and hysteresis.

• Resolution: The ability to detect small changes in the

measuring parameter

• Accuracy: ‘It is the combination of precision,

resolution and calibration.’

Source: https://learn.adafruit.com/calibrating-sensors/why-calibrate
 Calibration of Sensors
Most sensors are not ideal and are often affected by surrounding noise. For a
color sensor, this could be ambient light, and specular distributions.

If a sensor is known to be accurate, it can be used to make comparison with reference

readings. This is usually done with respect to certain standard physical references, such
as for a rangefinder we may use a ruler for calibration.

Each sensor has a ‘characteristic curve’ that defines the sensor’s response to an input.
The calibration process maps the sensor’s response to an ideal linear response
 Characteristic Curve of Sensor
Suppose the output of a sensor for some physical quantity x(t) is given by f(x(t)):

• Linear Model
, where

• Affine Model
, where ,

Often, ‘a’ is called the proportionality constant, which gives an idea of the
sensitivity of the sensor, and ‘b’ denotes the bias.

Note: The sensitivity of a sensor is ratio of output value to measured quantity.

 Sensor’s Operating Range
If the operating range of a sensor is (L, H),

To get an idea of how precise the measurements of a sensor can be, one defines its
precision ‘p’ as the smallest difference between two distinguishable sensor readings
of the physical quantity.
 Sampling and Quantisation
The process of the discretization of the domain of the signal being measured is
called sampling, whereas quantization refers to the discretisation of the range.

Pulse Code Modulator

Continuous-time Discrete-time Discrete-time Digital bit stream

continuous amplitude continuous amplitude discrete amplitude output signal
input signal signal (PAM) signal (PCM)
 Sampling and Quantisation

SAMPLING: Evaluating the input signal at discrete

units of time, say 0, T, 2T, ….. nT.

QUANTIZING: Provides discretized values to the

input on basis of a finite number of thresholding
conditions

ENCODING: Transforms the digital data into a

digital signal, comprising of bits 0111011…, on basis
of various schemes.

Manchester Line code

 Sampling and Quantisation
• If the sampling rate isn’t high, one can end up with different signals(aliases) during
reconstruction, that fit the same set of sample points. This is called aliasing, and is
undesirable. For best sampling, the sampling rate must be >= 2 times the frequency of
the signal. (Nyquist Shannon Sampling Theorem)

• In the case of quantisation, selection of fewer levels of discretisation can lead to

progressive loss of spatial detail. Also, contours(artificial boundaries) can start
appearing due to sudden changes in intensity. For audio signals, this can be heard as
noise/distortions.
 VARIETIES OF SENSORS

Acoustic Sensors Automotive Sensors Proximity Sensor Optical Sensor

Geophone Air flow meter Infrared sensor Photodiode
Hydrophone Speedometer Ultrasonic sensor Infrared sensor
Microphone Hall-Effect Sensor Camera
Air- Fuel Ratio meter

Electric Current Sensors Navigation Instruments

Hall Probe LIDAR
Magnetometer Gyroscope Rotary
Current sensor Encoder Odometer
Voltage Detector Tachometer
 1. Camera
Vision processing requires a lot of RAM, and even low resolution cameras may
give lots of data, parsing through which can be difficult.

Cameras draw in around 0.1 A current, the current rating of the USB hub to which they
are attached must be checked.

Advamotion
Raspberry Pi
Camera
 2. Inertial Measurement Unit
• Consists of three sensors:

o Accelerometer: Used to measure inertial

acceleration

o Gyroscope :Measures angular velocity

about defined axis
o Magnetometer : Can be used along with
gyroscope to get better estimates of robot’s
orientation (i.e. roll, pitch, yaw)
 3. Photo-resistors

Light sensitive resistors whose resistance decreases

as the intensity of light they are exposed to
increases. They are made of high resistance
semiconductor material.

When light hits the device, the photons give

electrons energy. This makes them jump into the
conductive band and thereby conduct electricity.
 4. Infrared Sensor

● IR led is led that emits light in IR region and can't be

seen by the eyes.
● Photodiode is a type of diode which works in
reverse bias and its resistance is changed when
subjected to change in light intensity.
● They are used for colour detection etc.
 5. Flex Sensors
Measure the amount of deflection caused by
bending, also called bend sensors.

The bending must occur around a radius of

curvature, as by some angle at a point isn’t
effective and if done by more than 90 deg.,
may permanently damage the sensor.
 6. Ultrasonic Sensor
These are commonly used for obstacle detection.

Works on principle similar to that of Sonar which

consists of time of flight,the Doppler effect and the
attenuation of sound waves.
 7. Rotary Encoder
They convert the angular position of a
shaft or axle to a
analog / digital code.

They may represent the value in

absolute or incremental terms. The
advantage of absolute encoders is that
they maintain the information of the
position even when power is removed,
and this is available immediately on its
application.
 8. Touch Sensor
Touch sensors can be defined as
switches that are activated by the
touch.

Examples includes capacitance

touch switch, resistance touch
switch, and piezo touch switch.
 9.Thermocouple
● Converts thermal energy into
electrical energy and is used to
measure temperature.
● When two dissimilar metal wires
are connected at one end
forming a junction, and that
junction is heated, a voltage is
generated across the junction .
ACTUATORS
 TYPES OF ACTUATORS
In a robot, actuators are used in order to produce some mechanical movement.
Electric Hydraulic Pneumatic
Electro-mechanical devices Transforms energy stored Uses pneumatic energy provided
which allow movement in reservoirs into by air compressor and transforms it
through use of electrically mechanical energy by into mechanical energy by means
controlled systems of gears means of suitable pumps of pistons or turbines

DC Motor
Water Pump by Pneumatic cylinder
Tefulong Ltd. by Janatics Ltd.
 ACTUATOR FUNCTIONAL DIAGRAM
Unregulated
Power Supply
(from batteries)

Control Signal
(from microcontroller) Power
Energy Output
H-Bridge Amplifier and
Conversion
Modulation

Actuator

Motor Driver
 MOTOR DRIVER
• Microcontrollers, typically, have current rating of 5-10 mA, while motors draw a supply
of 150mA. This means motors can’t be directly connected to microcontroller.

• For electromechanical actuators, following motor drivers are often used:

o Simple DC Motors: L298, L293

o Servo Motors: Already have power cable and different control cable

o Stepper Motors: L/R Driver Circuit, Chopper Drive

L298N Stepper Motor Driver Controller

 L298 DUAL H-BRIDGE IC
• Allowsto independentlycontrol
two DC motors up to 2 A each in
both directions.

• Power consumption for logical part

0-36 mA

• Requires protective diodes against

back e.m.f. externally

Connections to L298 Dual H-Bridge 2A

 H- BRIDGE
It is an electronic circuit used to apply voltage across a load in either direction
on basis of input from a microcontroller
S1 S2 S3 S4 Result
1 0 0 1 Motor moves right
0 1 1 0 Motor moves left
0 0 0 0 Motor coasts
0 1 0 1 Motor brakes
1 0 1 0 Motor brakes
1 1 0 0 Short circuit
0 0 1 1 Short circuit
1 1 1 1 Short circuit
 SPEED CONTROL USING PWM
● Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) is scheme in which
duty cycle of square wave
output fromthe
microcontroller is varied by
providing a varying average
DC output
● Voltage seen by the load is
directly proportional to the
unregulated source voltage
Components of a System Hardware
Components of a System Hardware

Input Signal Plant Output Signal

To plant From plant
(Physical World)

Actuators Sensors

Control Controller Measured

Effort Plant Output
(Digital World)
 Data Handling Systems
Both data about the physical world and control signals sent to interact with
the physical world are typically "analog" or continuously varying quantities.

In order to use the power of digital electronics, one must convert from
analog to digital form on the experimental measurement end and convert
from digital to analog form on the control or output end of a laboratory
system.
Data Collection after Control

Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hph.html