Data Acquisition and Controls

What Will You Learn?

• Explain the full data-acquisition chain and select appropriate sensors and transducers for temperature, pressure, level, flow, force, and position.
• Apply signal conditioning (amplification, attenuation, filtering, isolation) and correctly digitise signals using ADC, sampling, and the Nyquist criterion.
• Wire and scale industrial 4-20 mA transmitters into PLC analog input modules and build a simple data-logging system.
• Describe and tune open-loop, closed-loop, and PID control, and explain how SCADA and HMI supervise data acquisition and control across a plant.

Requirements

• Completion of relevant lower-level electrical, electronics, or mechatronics courses (including Fundamentals of Electricity and Electronics and an introduction to PLCs), or equivalent technical experience.
• Basic understanding of Ohm's law, DC circuits, voltage and current measurement, and workshop and electrical safety.
• Familiarity with using a PC and basic software for the logging and scaling exercises.
• Access to a multimeter, a 4-20 mA transmitter or simulator, a PLC with an analog input module (e.g. Siemens or Allen-Bradley), and an Arduino kit for the data-logging practical.