ABSTRACT
Mechatronic systems use a variety of sensors and actuators to measure and manipulate mechanical, electrical, and thermal systems. Sensors have many characteristics that affect their measurement capabilities and their suitability for each application. Analog sensors have an output that is continuous over a finite region of inputs. Examples of analog sensors include potentiometers, LVDTs (linear variable differential transformers), load cells, and thermistors. Digital sensors have a fixed or countable number of different output values. A common digital sensor often found in mechatronic systems is the incremental encoder. An analog sensor output conditioned by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) has the same digital output characteristics, as seen in Figure 19.1.
