Biography
Alessandro Ferrero was born in Milano, Italy, in 1954. He received his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano University in 1978. He is presently Full Professor of Electrical and Electronic Measurements at Politecnico di Milano. His main research interests have been always related to the application of Digital Signal Processing techniques to measurement on electric power systems. He has pioneered several methods and techniques for material and components characterization, power and energy metering, and the use of Virtual Instruments. He has published over 150 papers in scientific journals and in the proceedings of conferences, and is the recipient of the IEEE Joseph F. Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement for 2006. Prof. Ferrero is a Fellow of the IEEE, and a member of the AdCom of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, where he presently chairs the IMTC Board of Directors. |
Biography
John L. Schmalzel received his Ph.D. in Engineering from Kansas State University in 1980. He is Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ. His research interests are in the area of smart sensors with applications to space exploration and operations; he has also contributed to the development of innovative engineering curricula. In addition to his conference and journal publications, he contributes regularly to the IEEE I&M Magazine. |
Abstract
Measuring systems and instruments are becoming more and more complex and are presently capable of performing advanced measurement operations. The recent developments in sensor technology, analog-to-digital converters, and computational capabilities of DSP devices, and the relative simplicity with which these components can be interconnected have opened new possibilities to measurement science and practice. These developments are revealing a number of new issues involving the very fundamentals of the measurement science, from the definition of a new measurement paradigm to the metrological characterization of the measured results.
This tutorial is therefore aimed at reconsidering these basic issues, having in mind their application to the modern measuring systems. A model of the measurement process, as a bridge between the empirical world and the world of knowledge and abstract concepts, will be presented. Within this model, the measurement process is only capable of providing incomplete knowledge (the measurement result) about the measurand. It will be shown how an incomplete knowledge about the measurand is still acceptable, provided that we are capable of estimating how incomplete this knowledge is. Starting from this consideration, the methods for characterizing the result of a measurement will be discussed, focusing mainly on the uncertainty, calibration, and traceability concepts. A short survey on the International Metrology Organizations will be also given.
After having introduced the basic concept of metrology, a basic instrument diagram will be introduced, and the diagram of the modern systems based on digital signal processing techniques will be discussed in deeper details. The basic metrics will be covered and discussed: range, threshold, accuracy, sensitivity, resolution, linearity, stability and noise. The way these quantities can be estimated and accounted in uncertainty estimation will be discussed as well. Finally, application examples will be given. |
Target audience
This tutorial is mainly devoted to measurement practitioners who want to be up-to-date with the most recent developments in the measurement science and practice. It is also devoted to young engineers and scientists (including Ph.D. students), who are not involved in instrumentation and measurement as their primary field of interest, but whose work relies on experimental results and therefore they need to improve their expertise in this field. |
