VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION

Abstract:

Historically, Instrumentation systems used measuring rods, thermometers and scales. Now the instrumentation system consists of individual instruments, like a pressure gauge comprising of a transducer, signal conditioner, and display panel and it may also have a line recorder to record change in pressure. Virtual instrumentation extends to control process based on data collected and processed by computerized instrumentation system. In this paper, the discussion is about how virtual instrumentation can extend the capability of existing instruments, the applications of it in real world, comparison of virtual instrumentation with traditional instrumentation, the future of virtual instrumentation and the developments that came in virtual instrumentation.

History of Instrumentation Systems:

An instrument is a device designed to collect data from an environment, or from a unit under test, and to display information to a user based on the collected data. Historically, instrumentation systems originated in the distant past, with measuring rods, thermometers, and scales. In modern times, instrumentation systems have generally consisted of individual instruments. For example, an electro-mechanical pressure gauge comprising a sensing transducer wired to signal conditioning circuitry, outputting a processed signal to a display panel and perhaps also to a line recorder, in which a trace of changing conditions is inked onto a rotating drum by a mechanical arm, creating a time record of pressure changes. Even complex systems such as chemical process control applications typically employed, until the 1980s, sets of individual physical instruments wired to a central control panel that comprised an array of physical data display devices such as dials and counters, together with sets of switches, knobs and buttons for controlling the instruments. The introduction of computers into the field of instrumentation began as a way to couple an individual instrument, such as a pressure sensor, to a computer, and enable the display of measurement data on an instrument panel, displayed in software on the computer monitor and containing buttons or other means for controlling the operation of the sensor. Thus, such instrumentation software enabled the creation of a simulated physical instrument, having the capability to control physical sensing components.


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