What Is Data Acquisition?There are a number of places where you can automate the processes. This has already happened in industrial situations. It is happening in more and more places; some of them pretty non traditional. In these locations when you need to control or act up on certain situations, then you are called to make decisions. When automation is done, the computers are expected to make decisions based on the input that is obtained. In most cases, these data are not entered through a key board. But the computer obtains it through a data acquisition system. What is a data acquisition system? Data is created when ever you measure certain parameters. For instance, when you measure the current through a cable you have data or information. The same way data exists as temperature, flow rate, pressure, humidity and many other numerous parameters that might be needed for your process controlling systems. In many cases, what happens is that, these data are available in its raw form on one side. On the other, you will find that the data is continuously getting altered. In order to get the data into your computer you need to ensure that an appropriate data acquisition system is designed and is put in place. Every data acquisition will be done only if the following steps are carried out. Number one, you need to have what is called as a transducer to start the process of converting existing information into a computer readable data format. The out put of the transducer is in the electrical form. If you are trying to measure the weight of an object, then the transducer there will convert the weight into an electrical signal. This input of electrical signal is fed into what is called as a digitizer. This is the second step in the data acquisition system. This will convert an analog electrical signal into a format that is normally called the digital form of the measured entity. This is readable by the computer and can be taken into our normal processing. The digital form would have a clear binary format of the digital system. This three stage conversion of the information into palatable data is normally referred to as data acquisition. The data thus acquired is then transferred to a number of digital processing systems. This could be computers or microprocessors or any of the other intelligent processing systems like PLCs and others. In all these cases, it is normally found that the data acquisition system would transfer this data to the processing unit and then make appropriate controlling decisions. The controlling decisions that are made is then sent back to the activating system to ensure that the control system is working fully. A loop back is achieved when such a control system is implemented. Data acquisition systems normally work in conjunction with these control systems to make them more meaningful. |