MODULE 4

Sensor Technology:
• Sensor technology is a technology for designing the sensors and
associated electronic readers, circuits, and devices.

• A sensor can sense a change in physical parameters such as

Temperature , Pressure , Light intensity, Acceleration ,Orientation,
Location , Vibrations or Smell, organic vapours or gases.

• A sensor converts physical energy like heat, sound, strain, pressure,

vibrations and motion into the electrical energy.

• An electronic circuit connects to the output of a sensor. The circuit

output variation is according to the variation in physical condition

• The circuit receives the energy in form of variations in the currents,

voltages, their phase-angles or frequencies.

• Analog Sensors measures the variations in the parameters with

respect to a reference or normal condition and provide the value of
sensed parameter after appropriate calculations

Sensor:

• Sensor senses a specific physical condition when that exhibits the

measurable change in a characteristic circuit parameter on the change
in specific physical condition or environment

• For example, a temperature sensor senses the change in temperature

when that exhibits the measurable change in a characteristic circuit
parameter, resistance

• A smart sensor is a sensor with a built-in integrated circuit

(microcontroller, and sensor) to directly give the output as physical
parameter on giving input supply voltages and other signals as
commands

• Mainly of two types: Analog and Digital

Analog sensors:

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• Analog sensor gives analog output as per the physical condition, such
as temperature

• Measures the variations in the parameters with respect to a reference

or normal condition and provide the value of sensed parameter after
appropriate calculations

• Parameter can be resistance or capacitance change when the value

changes

• Uses the sensor and associated electronic analog Circuit

• Analog sensors generate analog outputs as per the physical

environmental parameters Temperature, strain, pressure, force, flex,
vapours, magnetic field, or proximity distances.

• For example Resistance of the sensing component may show

measurable changes with surrounding pressure or strain or magnetic
field or humidity.

• Resistance of a pressure sensor increases on pressure which creates

strain on the sensor

• A flex sensor, for example, of 2.2 inch or 4.5 inch length shows
Resistance across the sensor strip increases on flexing due to Changed
path and deflection of the sensing resistor

• The measurement of analog output from a sensor circuit is performed

as follows:

o The sensor output is given to the input of a signal conditioning and

amplifying circuit(SC)

o The SC output is the input to ADC.ADC gives digital output

o This output is read using a microcontroller.

o Microcontroller gives the value of the sensed parameter.

Reading Temperature from Resistance Sensor:

• A temperature sensor senses the change in temperature when that

exhibits the measurable change in a characteristic circuit parameter
like Resistance change in a wire or thermistor or Current through a
reverse biased p-n diode change due to temperature change.

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• This generates output from an integrated circuit proportional to the
temperature change

Resistance Sensor Example for organic vapours:

• A gas sensor senses the change in gas concentration which exhibits

the measurable change in a characteristic circuit parameter like
Resistance of a sensor of organic-solvent vapours shows measurable
drop with the vapours concentration in the vicinity.

Resistance Sensor for Light Intensity Example:

• Resistance of a photo-conductor shows measurable drop in presence of

light

• The conductivity (reciprocal of resistance) of sensor increases

depending on the radiation intensity.

Resistance Sensor for Strain Example

• Resistance of a strain sensor shows measurable increase in presence of

strain

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• The resistance change is due to dimensional (length and breadth)
changes depending on the strain created due to applied stress

Reading from Capacitive Sensor:

• Fig shows a circuit using a capacitance bridge. The bridge consists of

the sensing capacitor and three fixed capacitors.

• It senses the physical condition by changing the capacitance value.

• The microcontrollercalculates this change and give the output to ADC

and signal conditioning unit.

• For Example, Proximity sensor : the capacitance of sensing component

shows variation with proximity to a specific object, such as metal part
or finger.

• A level sensor capacitor shows variation with level of filler in a

container and computes the level upto which the container fills.

Analog to Digital Converter (ADC):

• ADC converts input signals to digital number.

• An 8-bit port accepts 8-bit input which corresponds to 0 to 255 from

the ADC

• A microcontroller may consist of in-circuit ADC or multiple inputs ADC

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• Alternatively, a port accepts digital input consisting of 1s and 0s
through an external ADC.

Signal Conditioning:

• The sensor output voltages which is in mV range

• ADC range is between Vref- and Vref+. Which is around 2V

• Signal conditioning amplifier amplifies sensor output up to this range.

• Signal conditioning amplifier also provide an offset voltage in the

output, as sensor output may not be 0 for the minimum value required
to be read.

Sampling ADC

• Sampling means that ADC is accepting the input signals at the

specified periodic intervals and Converts them into digits

• The interval is set as per the signal frequency and other needs.

• Sampling ADC is needed in recording of voice or music. This receives

signals from microphone for recording voice or music.

Digital Sensor

• Senses On-OF states

• Gives output as 1s or 0s

• 1 corresponds to certain range of Voltage, current, frequency, phase or

other electronic parameter

• 0 corresponds to another range of Voltage, current, frequency, phase

or other electronic parameter

• For example, 1 correspond to 12 to 8 V output and 0 corresponds to 0

to 4 V.

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Sensing ambient light condition:

Sensing wheel rotation for computing the speed of a vehicle:

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 Sensing linear motion of a shaft using a linear encoder with scale
marking:

Examples of the Sensors:

• Temperature

• Humidity

• Distance

• Light

• Acceleration

• Vibrations and shocks

• Angular Acceleration and change in direction

• Orientation and Direction compass

• Magnetic Sensors etc………..

Temperature Measuring and Control sensors:

• Thermistor Shows larger changes in resistance within narrow

environment temperature range (120°C to –90°C)

• A ‘Negative Temperature Coefficient’ (NTC) thermistor shows a drop in

the resistance value with rise in temperature

• Resistance value of a PTC resistor rises with rise in temperature.

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• A thin wire of platinum or other metallic alloys Shows nearly linear
changes with its temperature

• The output of thermistor connected to circuit of a signal conditioning

amplifier, ADC and then to microcontroller serial port

• Used for temperature sensing and measuring the values over very
wide ranges of temperatures, say (0–1600°C).

• Thermistor applications in home automation or in Sensing the clouds.

• Certain ICs, AD590 function as temperature transducer, generates 1

mA for every 1°C rise in temperature

• The output of transducer connected to a signal conditioning amplifier,

ADC and then to serial port interface at microcontroller.

• Readily available temperature sensors have inbuilt circuitry, just have

three terminals, two for 5 V or 3.6 V supply + and - terminals and one
for ADC input, Vin.

Humidity Sensor:

• Humidity is measured in percentage.

• It is the relative percentage ratio(RH %) of content of water vapours in

air compared to one in a situation of maximum possible water vapour
content for the air temperature at the instance of measurement.

• > 90% humidity specifies rainy day.

• A capacitor sensor shows change in capacitance as a percentage of

relative humidity change.

• Readily available Humidity Sensor shows Output voltage proportional

to RH% (Humidity sensor available from Sparkfun, an US company)

• The sensor is given input supply at + and – (ground) potential

terminals

• Generates output Voltage as a function of RH%.

Distance Sensor:

• Readily available

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• Output voltage proportional to distance (Sparkfun distance IR sensor)

• Sensor IR LED is given input supply at + and – (ground) potential

terminals

• An IR-FPT along with internal circuitry generates output Vdis as a

function of distance.

• Vdis is directly given as input to the ADC and ADC output to

microcontroller serial Port.

• Compute for distance.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)

• IIoT means the use of IoT technology in manufacturing.

• It involves Integration of complex physical machinery M2M

communication with the networked sensors

• Examples: Railways track maintenance , Mining ,Agriculture, Oil and

gas

Automotive IoT

• Deals with :-

- the connected cars Technology

- Vehicles-to-infrastructure technology

- Predictive and preventive maintenances

- autonomous cars

• Useful in predictive maintenance of an automobile by a service centre

application

• The sense data communicates in real-time or stores and transmit when

the automobile reaches Wi-Fi node.

• The service centre application schedules maintenance alerts and

predicts the failures and alerts for the actions.

Connected Cars Technology:

• Automotive vehicles can drive through roads with little or no effort.

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• A connected car with the combination of GPS tracking and an Internet
connection enables applications such as:

1. Display for driver that enables driving through the shortest route,
avoiding the congested route etc.

2. Customisation of functioning of the vehicle to meet the drivers needs

and preferences.

3. Get notifications about traffic

4. Protecting cars against theft.

5. Weather and enroute destinations.

Vehicle to Infrastructure Technology:

• In this A vehicle communicates with other vehicles or the surrounding

infrastructure and a Wi-Fi LAN.

• Examples:

- Alerts and warnings for forward collisions.

- Notification about a vacant parking space.

- Information about traffic congestion on route to destination.

- Stream live music and news

Autonomous Cars:

• Driverless cars have become a reality.

Actuators:
• A device that takes the actions as per the input command, pulse, state
(1 or 0), set of 1s and 0s or control signal

• An attached motor, speaker, LED or an output device converts

electrical energy into physical action

• Examples :- LED, Piezoelectric vibrator and speaker etc

LED:

• An actuator which emits light or infrared radiation

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• Depending on the input actions can be performed by Using different
colour LEDs for different actions or varying Intensity of LED lights and
colors or showing Graphic and text display

• Pulse width modulated pulses control the LED light emission-intensity.

• Microcontroller generating PWM outputs

Piezoelectric Vibrator and Speaker:

• Piezoelectric crystals when applied with varying electric voltages at

input generate vibrations

• Piezoelectric speaker enables synthesized music tunes and sounds

• The appropriately programmed pulses generate the music, sounds,

buzzers and alarms

Solenoid:

• An actuator consisting of number of cylindrically wound coils

• The flow of current creates magnetic field in proportion to the number

of turns in the solenoid and the current in it

• If a shaft made of iron is placed along the axis then its motion can be
controlled by the input current.

• Can create sharp forward push, backward push, repeated to and fro
motion of an assembly placed inside the solenoid

Motor:

• Can be DC (direct current controlled) or AC (alternating current

controlled)

• IO modules readily available to receive the control digital inputs of 1s

and 0s and deliver high currents.

• The dc or ac rotates the motor

• A cam converts rotator motion into linear motion when its motor
rotates

Relay Switch:

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• An electronic switch can be controlled by input 1 or 0 from the port pin
of a microcontroller

• A relay switch makes mechanical contact when input circuit

magnetizes with a control circuit and pulls a lever to make the contact

Sensor Data Communication Protocols:

• A serial interface uses a protocol for serial communication.

• UART is an example

• Wired communication can be:

- Serial asynchronous communication

- Synchronous serial communication

Serial Bus:

• Advantages of Bus for inter-devices communication:

- Simplifies number of interconnections

- Provides a common way (protocol) of connecting different or same type

of I/O devices

- Device interfaces communicate over same set of wires

- Can add new device or system’s interface that is compatible with a

system’s I/O bus

- Provides flexibility, allowing a system to support many different I/O

devices depending on the needs of its users and allowing users to
change the I/O devices that are attached to a system as their needs
change

Serial Bus Interface:

• Uses a protocol for serial-communication

• Microcontroller includes interfaces for serial communication

• UART, SPI, I2C and several other protocols enable the serial-
communication

UART Serial Bus:

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• Device sends 8-bit data at successive intervals, called baud intervals

• A start bit precedes the data (characters)

• Then 8-bit data

• Then a stop bit is 1 for a minimum interval equal to baud Interval

• 10 bauds per character

• Each digit or command communicates 8-bits

• Each character communicates 8-bit

• Coded as per the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information

Interchange) code

Serial Asynchronous Communication:

• UART communication

• A RFID reader use a 125 kHz RFID UART module.

• A GPS device send serial data using the UART.

Synchronous Serial-Communication

• Synchronous Serial communication use I2C or SPI interfaces in wired

bus communication

Automotive Sensors

• Communicating serial data using LIN, CAN, MOST, IEEE 1394 serial
protocols

Software Serial Library:

• Integrated development environment (IDE) for a microcontroller

system provides a software serial library

• A library consists of number of programs.

• Software serial-library has programs for number of protocols

• A program enables a user to directly use a protocol

• For example, a library program is used for reading an RFID tag.

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Using UART Communication for a RFID Tag:

• A header character sent before the tag

• A tag ID has ten digit characters

• An end character consists of 1 byte

• It Succeeds the 10 digits of tag

• Total number of digits communicates = 12

Using the I2C protocol for a Serial Bus:

• I2C bus means different integrated circuits using I2C interface

communicate over same set of wires

• A Library program for I2C serial interface protocol enables direct use of
a sensor IC

• I2C is inter-integrated circuit bus

• Sensors using I2C bus protocol consists of two active signal terminals,
SDA& SCL

Using the CAN Protocol for Serial Bus:

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• The embedded controllers with sensors and actuators networked and
are controlled through the CAN bus

• Example, automobiles

• A Controller Area Network (CAN bus) is a robust vehicle

bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to
communicate with each other in applications without a host computer.

• It consists of two wire serial link- CAN_H and CAN_L and their voltage
levels relative to each other determine whether a 1 or 0 is transmitted.
This is differential signaling.

• The current flowing in each signal line is equal but opposite in

direction, resulting in a field-canceling effect that is a key to low noise
emissions. This ensures a balanced differential signaling which reduces
noise coupling and allows high rate of transmission over the wires.

Wireless Sensor Network Nodes:

• They cooperatively monitor the physical and environmental conditions,
such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or hazard gas-
leaks and pollutants, at different locations.

• WSN acquires data from multiple and remote locations

• Internet of streetlights WSN acquires data of ambient light conditions

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• WSN communicates the nearby traffic densities data for the control
and monitoring of traffic signals

• Each node includes a RF transceiver—transceiver functions as both,

transmitter and receiver.

Definition of WSN:

• WSN is a Network in which each sensor node connects wirelessly

• Each having capabilities of computations, for data compaction,

aggregation and analysis

• Each one has the communication as well as networking capabilities

• WSN consists of spatially distributed autonomous devices (sensors).

WSN Node Architecture:

• The most common WSN architecture follows the OSI architecture

Model.

• The architecture of the WSN includes five layers and three cross layers.

• Mostly in sensor n/w we require five layers, namely application,

transport, n/w, data link & physical layer. The three cross planes are
namely power management, mobility management, and task
management.

• These layers of the WSN are used to accomplish the n/w and make the
sensors work together in order to raise the complete efficiency of the
network

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Application Layer:

• The application layer is liable for traffic management and offers

software for numerous applications that convert the data in a clear
form to find positive information.

• Sensor networks arranged in numerous applications in different fields

such as agricultural, military, environment, medical, etc.

Transport Layer:

• The function of the transport layer is to deliver congestion avoidance

• A congestion avoidance scheme allows a network to operate in the

region of low delay and high throughput.

• Such schemes prevent a network from entering the congested state.

• Congestion avoidance is a prevention mechanism while

congestion control is a recovery mechanism.

Network Layer:

• The main function of the network layer is routing

• The routing protocols define how nodes will communicate with each
other and how the information will be disseminated through the
network. There are many ways to classify the routing protocols of WSN.

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Data Link Layer:

• Responsible for multiplexing data streams

Physical Layer:

• The physical layer provides an edge for transferring a stream of bits

above physical medium.

• This layer is responsible for the selection of frequency, generation of

a carrier frequency, signal detection, Modulation & data encryption

Network Architecture of Connected Nodes:

Two architectures

- Fixed connecting infrastructure of WSN nodes, coordinators, relays,

gateways and routers. Example:- smart home network

- Mobile ad-hoc network of WSNs, access points, routers, gateways and

multi-point relays . Example:- mobile WSNs tied with birds or animals
for habitat monitoring.

- An access point is a fixed point transceiver to provide the accessibility

to nodes present nearby or nodes reaching in the wireless range.

- A multipoint relay connects to other networks such as the internet or

mobile service provider network.

- A router will select a path for packet transmission among the presently
available paths

- A coordinator provides the link between the two networks.

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 Ad-hoc network of mobile WSNs

Architecture for networking of nodes:

• Two architecture

- Layered (MINA)

- Multi cluster

Wireless Multi Hop Infrastructure Network Architecture (MINA):

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• MINA is a layered architecture

• The WSN nodes have data sensing as well as Capabilities of forwarding

towards the access point.

• The nodes can be mobile and have coverage and mobility range for
communication to remote access points

• Access points possess data gathering and processing capabilities and

have connectivity with a larger network such as the internet

• Each node connects to a short distant neighbour.

• When the node moves to longer distances then it communicates with

the access point through 2 or 3 hops

Each node has low power transceivers to nearest neighbouring layer

WSNs

Multiple clusters architecture:

• Each cluster has a gateway node

• A set of clusters has one cluster which has an associated cluster head
gateway

• Cluster head enables a tree like topology

• Head gateway connects to the internet or other networks

• The number of cluster heads depends on the coverage required in the

network

• Gateway interconnects two clusters

• Each node connects to a short distant neighbour

• The node connects to the gateway through one or more hops

• When a node moves to longer distances then it communicates to the

neighbouring cluster through the gateway

• Clustered architecture enables data compaction or fusion and

aggregation

• A gateway communicates compacted or aggregated data to another

cluster

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• A cluster head further aggregates, compacts or fuses the data before
communication to the web server or cloud using internet

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