Experiments in a mechatronics educational lab on signal acquisition basic concepts

Data acquisition is a task nowadays of fundamental importance in several applications of mechatronics and automation. From one side, it requires the use of sensors, signal conditioning circuits, analog to digital converters and processing blocks. From another, it requires an in-depth knowledge of measurement concepts such as: accuracy, calibration, resolution, effective number of bits, noise, dynamic range, etc. In this paper, the authors propose a new educational test-bench, best tailored for undergraduate bachelor students in mechatronics and aimed at familiarizing on signal data acquisition and measurement when performed in a mechatronics context. The system consists of a sliding cart moving on a linear guide driven by a stepper motor and equipped with a red green blue sensor. Good feedback from students has already been received.