Sensorsignals

Sensorsignals are the data output produced by sensors when they detect physical, chemical, or environmental stimuli. These signals serve as the raw input for measurement, monitoring, and control systems and can be analog, digital, or a hybrid form.

Analog signals vary continuously and are commonly represented by voltage or current levels that encode the measured quantity. Digital signals, in contrast, represent measurements as discrete values after sampling and quantization. Some sensors provide mixed outputs, such as delta-sigma modulated streams or pulse-width modulated signals that require decoding.

Signal conditioning prepares sensor signals for processing. This includes amplification, offset removal, filtering to reduce noise, impedance matching, and isolation for safety. Analog-to-digital conversion translates an analog signal into a digital value, with considerations of sampling rate, resolution, and timing.

Data from sensors is typically organized as time-stamped streams. It may be transmitted over wired or wireless links using protocols and formats such as serial interfaces, CAN, I2C, SPI, Ethernet, or wireless standards, often with metadata describing range, units, and calibration.

Key challenges include noise, drift, temperature dependence, and EMI, which affect accuracy. Calibration, compensation, and sensor fusion are common strategies to improve reliability. In some systems, redundancy and health monitoring are used to detect degradation.

Applications span industrial automation, robotics, environmental monitoring, healthcare, automotive systems, and consumer electronics, where sensor signals drive measurement, decision-making, and control.