Measuring Equipment

Measuring Equipment

The electronic measuring equipment used to create stimuli and measure the performance of the devices under test (DUT for its acronym in English) .The measurement of mechanical quantities, thermal, electrical and chemical is performed using devices called sensors and transducers. The sensor is sensitive to changes in the measured variable, as a temperature, a position or a chemical concentration. The transducer converts these measurements into electrical signals, which can feed reading instruments, recording or control of the measured quantities. Sensors and transducers can operate at locations remote from the observer, as well as inadequate or impractical for humans environments.

Some devices simultaneously act as a sensor and transducer. A thermocouple consists of two joints of dissimilar metals that generate a small voltage that depends on the differential between the junctions term. The thermistor is a special resistor, whose resistance value varies with temperature. A variable resistor can convert the mechanical movement into an electrical signal. Distance measuring specially designed capacitors are used to detect light and photocell are used. To measure speed, acceleration or liquid flows are used to other devices. In most cases, the electrical signal is weak and must be amplified by an electronic circuit. Below is a list of the most important measurement is presented:

• Galvanometer: measures the change of a certain magnitude, as the intensity of current or voltage (or voltage). It is used in building analog ammeters and voltmeters.

• Ammeter and current clamp: measure the electric current.

• Ohmmeter or Wheatstone bridge: measure electrical resistance. When the electrical resistance is very high (about 1 M-ohm) or megger insulation tester is used.

• Voltmeter: measures the voltage.

• Multimeter or multimeter: measure the three magnitudes mentioned above, plus electrical continuity and the B value of the transistors (both PNP and NPN).

• Power meter: measures electrical power. It consists of an ammeter and a voltmeter. Depending on the connection settings can deliver different measurements of electrical power, as the active power and reactive power.

• Oscilloscope: measure change of current and voltage versus time.

• Logic Analyzer: test digital circuits.

• Spectrum analyzer: measures the spectral energy of the signals.

• Vector signal analyzer: as the spectrum analyzer but with digital demodulation functions.

• Electrometer: measures the electrical charge.

• Frequency or frequency: counter measures the frequency.

• Time-domain reflectometer (TDR): test the integrity of long cables.

• Capacitance meter: measures electrical capacity or capacitance.

• Electric meter: measures electrical energy. Like the power meter can be configured to measure active energy (consumed) or reactive energy.

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Electronic Circuits

Electronic Circuits

A circuit is a mains (interconnection of two or more components, such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, power switches and semiconductor) that contains at least one closed path. A linear circuit, consisting of sources, linear components (resistors, capacitors, inductors) and linear distribution elements (transmission lines or cables), has the property of linear superposition. They are also easier to analyze, using methods in the frequency domain, to determine their response to direct current into alternating current and transient.

A resistive circuit is a circuit that contains only resistors and voltage and current sources. Analysis of resistive circuits is less complicated than the analysis of circuits containing capacitors and inductors. If sources are direct current, it is called direct current circuit.

A circuit board having electronic components is called an electronic circuit. These networks are generally nonlinear and designs and tools require more complex analysis.

components

• Component: A device with two or more terminals where a load can flow inside. In Figure 1 are nine components between resistors and sources.

• Node: Point a circuit where more than two drivers concur. A, B, C, D, E are nodes. Note that C is not considered as a new node, since it can be considered as the same node A as including no potential difference or voltage have 0 (VA - VC = 0).

• Rama: Set of all branches of between two consecutive nodes. In Figure 1, seven branches are: the source AB, BC by R1, AD, AE, BD, BE, DE. Obviously, for a branch can only drive a current.

• Mesh: Any closed path in an electrical circuit.

• Source: The component that is responsible for transforming some energy into electrical energy. In the circuit of Figure 1 there are three sources of current, I, and two voltage, E1 and E2.

• Conductor: Commonly called wire; It is a negligible resistance wire (ideally zero) connecting the elements to form the circuit.

Fundamental Laws

There are fundamental laws that govern any electrical circuit. These are:

Kirchhoff's current law: The sum of the currents entering through a node must equal the sum of the currents leaving by that node.

Law Kirchhoff stress: The sum of the voltages in a loop must be 0.

Ohm's law: Voltage on resistance equals the product of the value of said resistance by the current flowing through it.

Norton's Theorem: Any network that has a source of voltage or current, and at least one resistor is equivalent to an ideal current source in parallel with a resistor.

Thevenin theorem: Any network that has a source of voltage or current, and at least one resistor is equivalent to an ideal voltage source in series with a resistor.

Superposition theorem: In a grid with several independent sources, the response of a particular industry when all sources are active simultaneously is equal to the linear sum of the individual responses taking an independent source at a time.

If the circuit is not linear and reactive components may be required other more complex laws. In applying these laws or theorems a system of linear equations that can be solved manually or by computer will occur.

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Resistance

Resistance

It is the physical property by which all materials tend to resist the flow of current. The unit of this parameter is the ohm (Ω). Not to be confused with the resistor component. Conversely property is electrical conductance.

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Electric Current

Also called intensity, is the flow of electrons through a conductor or semiconductor in a sense. The unit of measurement of this parameter is the ampere (A). As there are continuous or alternating voltages, currents can also be direct or alternating, depending on the voltage used to generate these current flows.

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Tension

Tension

It is the potential difference generated between the ends of a component or electrical device. We can also say that energy is able to set in motion the free electrons in a conductor or semiconductor. The unit of this parameter is the volt (V). There are two types of stress: the continuous and alternating.

• DC voltage (VDC) It's one that has a definite polarity as that provided by batteries and power supplies.

• AC voltage (VAC) It's one whose polarity is changing or alternating over time. The most common sources are alternating voltage generators and domestic energy networks.

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Electronic Signals

Electronic Signals

It is the representation of a material physical phenomenon or state through an established relationship; the inputs and outputs of an electronic system will be variable signals.

In electronics working with variables that take the form of voltage or current commonly these can be called signals. Primarily signals can be of two types:

• Variable analog-they are those that can take an infinite number of values ​​between two limits. Most real-life phenomena show signs of this type (pressure, temperature, etc.).

• Variable digitally also called discrete variables, meaning these, the variables that can take a finite number of values. Be easily performed by the physical components with two different states is the number of values ​​used for such variables, which therefore are binary. Being easier to deal with these variables (in logic would be the V and F values) are generally used to link several variables to each other and to their previous states.

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Components

Components

For the synthesis of electronic circuits electronic components and electronic instruments are used. Below is a list of the most important instruments and components in electronics, followed by their most common use is as follows:

• Speaker: sound reproduction.
• Cable: conduction of electricity.
• Switch: reroute an input to an output chosen between two or more.
• Switch: open or closed circuit manually.
• Battery: power generator.
• Transducer: transformation of a physical quantity into an electrical.
• Display: shows data or images.

(Examples) Analog Devices

• Operational amplifier: amplification, control and conversion of signal switching.
• Capacitor: energy storage, filtering, impedance adaptation.
• Diode: rectification signal, regulation, voltage multiplier.
• Zener diode: regulation of tension.
• Inductor: impedance matching.
• Potentiometer: variation in electrical current or voltage.
• Relay: opening or closing of circuits using control signals.
• Resistor or resistance: current or voltage division, current limiting.
• Transistor: amplification, switching.

Digital devices

• Bistable: sequential control systems.
• Memory: digital data storage.
• Microcontroller: digital control systems.
• Gate: combinational control systems.

Power devices

• DIAC: power control.
• Fuse: protection against over-currents.
• Thyristor: semiconductor switch for power control.
• Transformer: raise or lower voltage, current, and apparent impedance.
• Silicon controlled rectifier (SCR).
• Triac: power control.
• Varistor: protection against over voltage.

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Classification of robots

According to the chronology

Which then arises is the most common classification:

• 1st Generation.

Manipulators. They are multifunctional mechanical systems with a single control system, either manually, sequence or fixed sequence.

• 2nd Generation.

Robots learning. Repeating a sequence of movements that has been previously performed by a human operator. The way is through a mechanical device. The operator performs the required movements while the robot followed and memorized.

• 3rd Generation.

Robots with sensorised control. The controller is a computer running a program orders and sends them to the handler to make the necessary movements.

• 4th Generation.

Intelligent robots. They are similar to the above, but also have sensors that send information to the control computer on the state of the process. This enables intelligent decision making and process control in real time.

Depending on their structure

The structure is defined by the type of general configuration of the robot, it can be metamorphic. The concept of metamorphism, emerging, has been introduced to increase the functional flexibility of a Robot by changing your settings for the robot itself. Metamorphism supports various levels, from the most basic (tool change or terminal effect) to the more complex as the change or alteration of some of its elements or structural subsystems. The devices and mechanisms that can be grouped under the generic name of the Robot, as noted, are very diverse and it is therefore difficult to establish a coherent classification of them to withstand a critical and rigorous analysis. The subdivision of the Robots, based on its architecture, is made in the following groups: polyarticulated, phones, androids, zoomorphic and hybrids.

• polyarticulated

In this group are variously Robots and configuration, whose common characteristic is to be basically sedentary (although exceptionally can be guided to perform limited displacements) and being structured to move its terminal elements in a given workspace by one or more coordinate systems, and with a limited number of degrees of freedom. In this group are the manipulators, industrial robots, Cartesian Robots are used and when it should cover a relatively large working area or elongated, acting on objects with a vertical plane of symmetry or reduce the space occupied on the ground.

• Mobile

They are robots with increased mobility, based on carts or platforms and equipped with a rolling type locomotor system. They go their way or remotely guided by the information received from its environment through its sensors. These Robots ensure transport of parts from one point to another in a production line. Guided by clues materialized through the electromagnetic radiation of circuits embedded in the ground, or by bands detected photoelectrically, they may even overcome obstacles and are endowed with a relatively high level of intelligence.

• Androids

They are robots trying to reproduce the shape and kinematic behavior of human beings. Currently, the androids are still very poorly developed and of no practical use devices, and intended mainly to study and experimentation. One of the most complex aspects of these robots, and on which most of the work focuses is to bipedal locomotion. In this case, the main problem is dynamic and coordinated control in real time the process and simultaneously balance the Robot.

• zoomorphic

Zoomorphic Robots, which considered not restrictive sense could also include the androids, it is mainly characterized by a kind of locomotion systems that mimic the various living beings. Despite the morphological differences between their systems of locomotion is possible to group the zoomorphic robots into two main categories: non-walkers and walkers. The group of non-walkers zoomorphic Robots is very little changed. Experiments performed in Japan based beveled cylindrical segments axially coupled together and having relative rotational movement. Robots zoomorphic multípedos walkers are numerous and are the subject of experiments in various laboratories for the further development of real terrain, piloted and autonomous vehicles, able to evolve in very rough surfaces. The applications of these robots will be interesting in the field of space exploration and the study of volcanoes.

• Hybrid
  

They correspond to those difficult to classify, whose structure is in combination with any of the above given above, either by combination or juxtaposition. For example, a segmented and articulated with wheels, at the same time, one of the attributes of mobile robots and zoomorphic Robots.

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History

The history of robotics is linked to the construction of "artifacts" that tried to materialize the desire to create human beings in His likeness and that descargasen work. The Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo (who built the first remote control for your car by wireless telegraphy, the automatic chess player, the first air shuttle and many other mills) coined the term "automatic" in relation to the theory of automation traditionally associated tasks.

Karel Capek, a Czech writer, coined in 1921 the term "Robot" in his play Rossum's Universal Robots / R.u.r., from the Czech word Robota, meaning servitude or forced labor. The term robotics is coined by Isaac Asimov, defining the science of robots. Asimov also created the three laws of robotics. In science fiction man has imagined robots visiting new worlds, seizing power, or simply alleviating the housework.

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Robotics

Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering and computer science that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots.

Robotics combines various disciplines such as: mechanics, electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence, control engineering and physics. Other important areas in robotics are algebra, programmable robots, animatronics and state machines.

The term robot was popularized with the success of the work R.u.r. (Rossum 's Universal Robots), written by Karel Capek in 1920. The English translation of this work, the Czech word Robota , meaning forced labor, was translated into English as a robot.

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Microprocessors

In 1969, Ted Hoff conceived the commercial microprocessor at Intel and thus ignited the development of the personal computer. Hoff's invention was part of an order by a Japanese company for a desktop programmable electronic calculator, which Hoff wanted to build as cheaply as possible. The first realization of the microprocessor was the Intel 4004, a 4-bit processor, in 1969, but only in 1973 did the Intel 8080, an 8-bit processor, make the building of the first personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800, possible. The first PC was announced to the general public on the cover of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.

Many electronics engineers today specialize in the development of programs for microprocessor based electronic systems, known as embedded systems. Hybrid specializations such as Computer Engineering have emerged due to the detailed knowledge of the hardware that is required for working on such systems. Software engineers typically do not study microprocessors at the same level as computer and electronics engineers. Engineers who exclusively carry out the role of programming embedded systems or microprocessors are referred to as "embedded systems engineers", or "firmware engineers".

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Computers

A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.

Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). These were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs). Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space. Simple computers are small enough to fit into small pocket devices, and can be powered by a small battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers". However, the embedded computers found in many devices from MP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are the most numerous.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a netbook to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.

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Radar and radio location

During World War II many efforts were expended in the electronic location of enemy targets and aircraft. These included radio beam guidance of bombers, electronic counter measures, early radar systems etc. During this time very little if any effort was expended on consumer electronics developments.

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Television

In 1928 Philo Farnsworth made the first public demonstration of a purely electronic television. During the 1930s several countries began broadcasting, and after World War II it spread to millions of receivers, eventually worldwide. Ever since then, electronics have been fully present in television devices.

Modern televisions and video displays have evolved from bulky electron tube technology to use more compact devices, such as plasma and LCD displays. The trend is for even lower power devices such as the organic light-emitting diode displays, and it is most likely to replace the LCD and plasma technologies.

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Wireless telegraphy and radio

Some of the devices which would enable wireless telegraphy were invented before 1900. These include the spark-gap transmitter and the coherer with early demonstrations and published findings by David Edward Hughes (1880) and Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1887 to 1890) and further additions to the field by Édouard Branly, Nikola Tesla, Oliver Lodge, Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Ferdinand Braun. In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi went on to develop a practical and widely used radio system.

In 1904, John Ambrose Fleming, the first professor of electrical Engineering at University College London, invented the first radio tube, the diode. Then, in 1906, Robert von Lieben and Lee De Forest independently developed the amplifier tube, called the triode. Electronics is often considered to have begun with the invention of the triode. Within 10 years, the device was used in radio transmitters and receivers as well as systems for long distance telephone calls.

The invention of the triode amplifier, generator, and detector made audio communication by radio practical. (Reginald Fessenden's 1906 transmissions used an electro-mechanical alternator.) In 1912, Edwin H. Armstrong invented the regenerative feedback amplifier and oscillator; he also invented the superheterodyne radio receiver and could be considered the father of modern radio.

The first known radio news program was broadcast 31 August 1920 by station 8MK, the unlicensed predecessor of WWJ (AM) in Detroit, Michigan. Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment commenced in 1922 from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford, England. The station was known as 2MT and was followed by 2LO, broadcasting from Strand, London.

While some early radios used some type of amplification through electric current or battery, through the mid-1920s the most common type of receiver was the crystal set. In the 1920s, amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized both radio receivers and transmitters.

Vacuum tubes remained the preferred amplifying device for 40 years, until researchers working for William Shockley at Bell Labs invented the transistor in 1947. In the following years, transistors made small portable radios, or transistor radios, possible as well as allowing more powerful mainframe computers to be built. Transistors were smaller and required lower voltages than vacuum tubes to work.

Before the invention of the integrated circuit in 1959, electronic circuits were constructed from discrete components that could be manipulated by hand. These non-integrated circuits consumed much space and power, were prone to failure and were limited in speed although they are still common in simple applications. By contrast, integrated circuits packed a large number — often millions — of tiny electrical components, mainly transistors, into a small chip around the size of a coin.

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