Internet of Things [21CS735]

MODULE –2

SYLLABUS

IOT Sensing and Actuation: Introduction, Sensors, Sensor Characteristics, Sensorial

Deviations, Sensing Types, Sensing Considerations, Actuators, Actuator Types, Actuator
Types, Actuator Characteristics.

Textbook 1: Chapter 5: 5.1 to 5.9

IOT SENSING AND ACTUATION

SESSION - 1
2.1 INTRODUCTION
 A major chunk of IoT applications involves sensing in one form or the other. Almost all
the applications in IoT—be it a consumer IoT, an industrial IoT, or just plain hobby-based
deployments of IoT solutions—sensing forms the first step.
 Actuation forms the final step in the whole operation of IoT application deployment in a
majority of scenarios.
 The basic science of sensing and actuation is based on the process of transduction.
Transduction is the process of energy conversion from one form to another.
 A transducer is a physical means of enabling transduction. Transducers take energy in any
form (for which it is designed)—electrical, mechanical, chemical, light, sound, and
others—and convert it into another, which may be electrical, mechanical, chemical, light,
sound, and others.
 Sensors and actuators are deemed as transducers.
 For example, in a public announcement (PA) system, a microphone (input device) converts
sound waves into electrical signals, which is amplified by an amplifier system (a process).
Finally, a loudspeaker (output device) outputs this into audible sounds by converting the
amplified electrical signals back into sound waves.

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Differences between transducers, sensors, and actuators

Parameters Transducers Sensors Actuators

Definition Converts energy from Converts various forms of Converts electrical signals
one form to another energy into electrical into various forms of
signals. energy, typically
mechanical energy.
Domain Can be used to It is an input transducer. It is an output transducer
represent a sensor as
well as an actuator.
Function Can work as a sensor Used for quantifying Used for converting
or an actuator but not environmental stimuli into signals into proportional
simultaneously signals. mechanical or electrical
outputs.
Examples Any sensor or Humidity sensors, Motors (convert electrical
actuator Temperature sensors, energy to rotary motion),
Anemometers (measures Force heads (which impose
flow velocity), a force), Pumps (which
Manometers (measures convert rotary motion of
fluid pressure), shafts into either a pressure
Accelerometers (measures or a fluid velocity).
the acceleration of a body),
Gas sensors (measures
concentration of specific
gas or gases), and other

Questions
1 What is IoT?
2 What is sensor?
3 What is Actuator?
4 Difference between Transducers, sensors &Actuators.

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SESSION - 2

2.2 SENSORS
 Sensors are devices that can measure, or quantify, or respond to the ambient changes in
their environment or within the intended zone of their deployment. They generate
responses to external stimuli or physical phenomenon through characterization of the input
functions (which are these external stimuli) and their conversion into typically electrical
signals.
 For example, heat is converted to electrical signals in a temperature sensor, or atmospheric
pressure is converted to electrical signals in a barometer.
 A sensor is only sensitive to the measured property (e.g., a temperature sensor only senses
the ambient temperature of a room).
 It is insensitive to any other property besides what it is designed to detect (e.g., a
temperature sensor does not bother about light or pressure while sensing the temperature).
 a sensor does not influence the measured property (e.g., measuring the temperature does
not reduce or increase the temperature).
 Figure 2.1 shows the simple outline of a sensing task. Here, a temperature sensor keeps on
checking an environment for changes. In the event of a fire, the temperature of the
environment goes up. The temperature sensor notices this change in the temperature of the
room and promptly communicates this information to a remote monitor via the processor.

Fig 2.1 The outline of a simple sensing operation

The various sensors can be classified based on:

1. power requirements,
2. sensor output, and
3. property to be measured.

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Power Requirements:
 The way sensors operate decides the power requirements that must be provided for an IoT
implementation.
 Some sensors need to be provided with separate power sources for them to function,
whereas some sensors do not require any power sources.
 Depending on the requirements of power, sensors can be of two types.
i) Active:
 Active sensors do not require an external circuitry or mechanism to provide it with
power.
 It directly responds to the external stimuli from its ambient environment and converts
it into an output signal.
 For example, a photodiode converts light into electrical impulses. ‘
ii) Passive:
 Passive sensors require an external mechanism to power them up.
 The sensed properties are modulated with the sensor’s inherent characteristics to
generate patterns in the output of the sensor.
 For example, a thermistor’s resistance can be detected by applying voltage difference
across it or passing a current through it.
Output:
 The output of a sensor helps in deciding the additional components to be integrated with
an IoT node or system. Typically, almost all modern-day processors are digital; digital
sensors can be directly integrated to the processors.
 The integration of analog sensors to these digital processors or IoT nodes requires
additional interfacing mechanisms such as analog to digital converters (ADC), voltage
level converters, and others.
 Sensors are broadly divided into two types, depending on the type of output generated from
these sensors, as follows.
i) Analog:
 Analog sensors generate an output signal or voltage, which is proportional (linearly or
non-linearly) to the quantity being measured and is continuous in time and amplitude.
 Physical quantities such as temperature, speed, pressure, displacement, strain, and
others are all continuous and categorized as analog quantities.
 For example, a thermometer or a thermocouple can be used for measuring the
temperature of a liquid (e.g., in household water heaters).
 These sensors continuously respond to changes in the temperature of the liquid.
ii) Digital:
 These sensors generate the output of discrete time digital representation (time, or
amplitude, or both) of a quantity being measured, in the form of output signals or
voltages.

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 Typically, binary output signals in the form of a logic 1 or a logic 0 for ON or OFF,
respectively are associated with digital sensors.
 The generated discrete (non-continuous) values may be output as a single “bit” (serial
transmission), eight of which combine to produce a single “byte” output (parallel
transmission) in digital sensors.
Measured Property:
 The property of the environment being measured by the sensors can be crucial in deciding
the number of sensors in an IoT implementation.
 Some properties to be measured do not show high spatial variations and can be quantified
only based on temporal variations in the measured property, such as ambient temperature,
atmospheric pressure, and others.
 Whereas some properties to be measured show high spatial as well as temporal variations
such as sound, image, and others.
 Depending on the properties to be measured, sensors can be of two types.
i) Scalar:
 Scalar sensors produce an output proportional to the magnitude of the quantity being
measured.
 The output is in the form of a signal or voltage.
 Scalar physical quantities are those where only the magnitude of the signal is sufficient
for describing or characterizing the phenomenon and information generation.
 Examples of such measurable physical quantities include color, pressure, temperature,
strain, and others.
 A thermometer or thermocouple is an example of a scalar sensor that has the ability to
detect changes in ambient or object temperatures (depending on the sensor’s
configuration).
 Factors such as changes in sensor orientation or direction do not affect these sensors
(typically).
ii) Vector:
 Vector sensors are affected by the magnitude as well as the direction and/or orientation
of the property they are measuring.
 Physical quantities such as velocity and images that require additional information
besides their magnitude for completely categorizing a physical phenomenon are
categorized as vector quantities.
 Measuring such quantities are undertaken using vector sensors. For example, an
electronic gyroscope, which is commonly found in all modern aircraft, is used for
detecting the changes in orientation of the gyroscope with respect to the Earth’s
orientation along all three axes.

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Questions
1 What are the types of sensor based on power?
2 Differentiate between scalar and vector sensors
3 What is active and passive sensor types?
4 What is anlog and digital sensor types?

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SESSION - 3
2.3 SENSOR CHARACTERISTICS
 All sensors can be defined by their ability to measure or capture a certain phenomenon and
report them as output signals to various other systems.
 Even within the same sensor type and class, sensors can be characterized by their ability to
sense the phenomenon based on the following three fundamental properties. •
i) Sensor Resolution:
 The smallest change in the measurable quantity that a sensor can detect is referred to
as the resolution of a sensor.
 For digital sensors, the smallest change in the digital output that the sensor is capable
of quantifying is its sensor resolution.
 The more the resolution of a sensor, the more accurate is the precision. A sensor’s
accuracy does not depend upon its resolution.
 For example, a temperature sensor A can detect up to 0.5 ◦ C changes in temperature;
whereas another sensor B can detect up to 0.25◦ C changes in temperature. Therefore,
the resolution of sensor B is higher than the resolution of sensor A.
ii) Sensor Accuracy:
 The accuracy of a sensor is the ability of that sensor to measure the environment of a
system as close to its true measure as possible.
 For example, a weight sensor detects the weight of a 100 kg mass as 99.98 kg. We can
say that this sensor is 99.98% accurate, with an error rate of ±0.02%.
iii) Sensor Precision:
 The principle of repeatability governs the precision of a sensor.
 Only if, upon multiple repetitions, the sensor is found to have the same error rate, can
it be deemed as highly precise.
 For example, consider if the same weight sensor described earlier reports
measurements of 98.28 kg, 100.34 kg, and 101.11 kg upon three repeat measurements
for a mass of actual weight of 100 kg.
 Here, the sensor precision is not deemed high because of significant variations in the
temporal measurements for the same object under the same conditions.

2.4 SENSORIAL DEVIATIONS

 The various sensorial deviations are considered as errors in sensors.
 Most of the sensing in IoT is non-critical, where minor deviations in sensorial outputs
seldom change the nature of the undertaken tasks.
 However, some critical applications of IoT, such as healthcare, industrial process
monitoring, and others, do require sensors with high-quality measurement capabilities.

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 As the quality of the measurement obtained from a sensor is dependent on a large number
of factors, there are a few primary considerations that must be incorporated during the
sensing of critical systems.
 In the event of a sensor’s output signal going beyond its designed maximum and minimum
capacity for measurement, the sensor output is truncated to its maximum or minimum
value, which is also the sensor’s limits.
 The measurement range between a sensor’s characterized minimum and maximum values
is also referred to as the fullscale range of that sensor.
 Under real conditions, the sensitivity of a sensor may differ from the value specified for
that sensor leading to sensitivity error. This deviation is mostly attributed to sensor
fabrication errors and its calibration.
 If the output of a sensor differs from the actual value to be measured by a constant, the
sensor is said to have an offset error or bias. For example, while measuring an actual
temperature of 0 ◦ C, a temperature sensor outputs 1.1 ◦ C every time. In this case, the
sensor is said to have an offset error or bias of 1.1 ◦ C.
 Similarly, some sensors have a non-linear behavior. If a sensor’s transfer function (TF)
deviates from a straight line transfer function, it is referred to as its non-linearity. The
amount a sensor’s actual output differs from the ideal TF behavior over the full range of
the sensor quantifies its behavior. Most sensors have linear behavior.
 If the output signal of a sensor changes slowly and independently of the measured property,
this behavior of the sensor’s output is termed as drift. Physical changes in the sensor or its
material may result in long-term drift, which can span over months or years. Noise is a
temporally varying random deviation of signals
 In contrast, if a sensor’s output varies/deviates due to deviations in the sensor’s previous
input values, it is referred to as hysteresis error.
 The present output of the sensor depends on the past input values provided to the sensor.
 Typically, the phenomenon of hysteresis can be observed in analog sensors, magnetic
sensors, and during heating of metal strips.
 Focusing on digital sensors, if the digital output of a sensor is an approximation of the
measured property, it induces quantization error.
 This error can be defined as the difference between the actual analog signal and its closest
digital approximation during the sampling stage of the analog to digital conversion.
 Similarly, dynamic errors caused due to mishandling of sampling frequencies can give
rise to aliasing errors. Aliasing leads to different signals of varying frequencies to be
represented as a single signal in case the sampling frequency is not correctly chosen,
resulting in the input signal becoming a multiple of the sampling rate.
 Finally, the environment itself plays a crucial role in inducing sensorial deviations. Some
sensors may be prone to external influences, which may not be directly linked to the
property being measured by the sensor. This sensitivity of the sensor may lead to deviations
in its output values.

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 For example, as most sensors are semiconductorbased, they are influenced by the
temperature of their environment.

Questions

1 List the character tics of sensor.

2 What is Sensor Resolution?
3 What is Sensor Accuracy?
4 What is Sensor Precision?

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SESSION - 4

2.5 SENSING TYPES

Sensing can be broadly divided into four different categories based on the nature of the
environment being sensed and the physical sensors being used to do so (Figure 2.3).
1. Scalar sensing,
2. Multimedia sensing,
3. Hybrid sensing, and
4. Virtual sensing
2.5.1 Scalar sensing
 Scalar sensing encompasses the sensing of features that can be quantified simply by
measuring changes in the amplitude of the measured values with respect to time.
 Quantities such as ambient temperature, current, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, light,
humidity, flux, and others are considered as scalar values as they normally do not have a
directional or spatial property assigned with them.
 Simply measuring the changes in their values with passing time provides enough
information about these quantities.
 The sensors used for measuring these scalar quantities are referred to as scalar sensors, and
the act is known as scalar sensing.

A simple scalar temperature sensing of a fire detection event is shown in Figure 2.3(a)
 Figures 2.2(b), 2.2 (d), 2.2 (e), 2.2 (f), 2.2 (g), 2.2 (h), 2.2 (i), and 2.2 (j) show scalar
sensors.

Fig 2.2 Some common commercially available sensors used for IoT-based sensing applications

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Fig2.3

2.5.2 Multimedia sensing

 Multimedia sensing encompasses the sensing of features that have a spatial variance
property associated with the property of temporal variance.
 Unlike scalar sensors, multimedia sensors are used for capturing the changes in amplitude
of a quantifiable property concerning space (spatial) as well as time (temporal). Quantities
such as images, direction, flow, speed, acceleration, sound, force, mass, energy, and
momentum have both directions as well as a magnitude.
 Additionally, these quantities follow the vector law of addition and hence are designated
as vector quantities.
 They might have different values in different directions for the same working condition at
the same time.
 The sensors used for measuring these quantities are known as vector sensors. Figures 2.2(a)
and 2.2 (c) are vector sensors.

Fig 2.3b
A simple camera-based multimedia sensing using surveillance as an example is shown in
Figure 2.3(b)

2.5.3 Hybrid sensing

 The act of using scalar as well as multimedia sensing at the same time is referred to as
hybrid sensing.
 Many a time, there is a need to measure certain vector as well as scalar properties of an
environment at the same time. Under these conditions, a range of various sensors are
employed (from the collection of scalar as well as multimedia sensors) to measure the

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various properties of that environment at any instant of time, and temporally map the
collected information to generate new information.
 For example, in an agricultural field, it is required to measure the soil conditions at regular
intervals of time to determine plant health. Sensors such as soil moisture and soil
temperature are deployed underground to estimate the soil’s water retention capacity and
the moisture being held by the soil at any instant of time.
 However, this setup only determines whether the plant is getting enough water or not.
 There may be a host of other factors besides water availability, which may affect a plant’s
health.
 The additional inclusion of a camera sensor with the plant may be able to determine the
actual condition of a plant by additionally determining the color of leaves.
 The aggregate information from soil moisture, soil temperature, and the camera sensor
will be able to collectively determine a plant’s health at any instant of time.
 Other common examples of hybrid sensing include smart parking systems, traffic
management systems, and others.

Figure 2.3 (c) shows an example of hybrid sensing, where a camera and a temperature
sensor are collectively used to detect and confirm forest fires during wildlife monitoring.

Questions

1 List the different Sensing Types

2 What is Scalar Sensing?
3 What is Multimedia Sensing?
4 What is Hybrid Sensing?

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SESSION - 5
2.5 SENSING TYPES

2.5.4 Virtual sensing

 Many a time, there is a need for very dense and large-scale deployment of sensor nodes
spread over a large area for monitoring of parameters.
 One such domain is agriculture . Here, often, the parameters being measured, such as soil
moisture, soil temperature, and water level, do not show significant spatial variations.
 Hence, if sensors are deployed in the fields of farmer A, it is highly likely that the
measurements from his sensors will be able to provide almost concise measurements of
his neighbor B’s fields; this is especially true of fields which are immediately surrounding
A’s fields.
 Exploiting this property, if the data from A’s field is digitized using an IoT infrastructure
and this system advises him regarding the appropriate watering, fertilizer, and pesticide
regimen for his crops, this advisory can also be used by B for maintaining his crops.
 In short, A ’s sensors are being used for actual measurement of parameters; whereas
virtual data (which does not have actual physical sensors but uses extrapolation-based
measurements) is being used for advising B. This is the virtual sensing paradigm.
 Figure 2.3(d) shows an example of virtual sensing. Two temperature sensors S1 and S3
monitor three nearby events E1, E2, and E3 (fires).
 The event E2 does not have a dedicated sensor for monitoring it; however, through the
superposition of readings from sensors S1 and S3, the presence of fire in E2 is inferred.

Fig 2.3 d Example of virtual sensing

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2.6 SENSING CONSIDERATIONS

The following major factors influence the choice of sensors in IoT-based sensing solutions:
1. Sensing range,
2. Accuracy and Precision,
3. Energy,
4. Device size.
1. Sensing Range:
 The sensing range of a sensor node defines the detection fidelity of that node.
 Typical approaches to optimize the sensing range in deployments include fixed k-coverage
and dynamic k-coverage.
 A lifelong fixed k-coverage tends to usher in redundancy as it requires a large number of
sensor nodes, the sensing range of some of which may also overlap.
 In contrast, dynamic kcoverage incorporates mobile sensor nodes post detection of an
event, which, however, is a costly solution and may not be deployable in all operational
areas and terrains.
 Additionally, the sensing range of a sensor may also be used to signify the upper and lower
bounds of a sensor’s measurement range. For example, a proximity sensor has a typical
sensing range of a couple of meters. In contrast, a camera has a sensing range varying
between tens of meters to hundreds of meters. As the complexity of the sensor and its
sensing range goes up, its cost significantly increases.
2. Accuracy and Precision:
 The accuracy and precision of measurements provided by a sensor are critical in deciding
the operations of specific functional processes.
 Typically, off-the-shelf consumer sensors are low on requirements and often very cheap.
However, their performance is limited to regular application domains.
 For example, a standard temperature sensor can be easily integrated with conventional
components for hobby projects and day-to-day applications, but it is not suitable for
industrial processes. Regular temperature sensors have a very low-temperature sensing
range, as well as relatively low accuracy and precision. The use of these sensors in
industrial applications, where a precision of up to 3–4 decimal places is required, cannot
be facilitated by these sensors. Industrial sensors are typically very sophisticated, and as a
result, very costly. However, these industrial sensors have very high accuracy and precision
score, even under harsh operating conditions.
3. Energy:
 The energy consumed by a sensing solution is crucial to determine the lifetime of that
solution and the estimated cost of its deployment.

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 If the sensor or the sensor node is so energy inefficient that it requires replenishment of its
energy sources quite frequently, the effort in maintaining the solution and its cost goes up;
whereas its deployment feasibility goes down.
 Consider a scenario where sensor nodes are deployed on the top of glaciers. Once deployed,
access to these nodes is not possible. If the energy requirements of the sensor nodes are too
high, such a deployment will not last long, and the solution will be highly infeasible as
charging or changing of the energy sources of these sensor nodes is not an option.
4. Device Size:
 Modern-day IoT applications have a wide penetration in all domains of life.
 Most of the applications of IoT require sensing solutions which are so small that they do
not hinder any of the regular activities that were possible before the sensor node
deployment was carried out. Larger the size of a sensor node, larger is the obstruction
caused by it, higher is the cost and energy requirements, and lesser is its demand for the
bulk of the IoT applications.
 Consider a simple human activity detector. If the detection unit is too large to be carried
or too bulky to cause hindrance to regular normal movements, the demand for this solution
would be low. It is because of this that the onset of wearables took off so strongly. The
wearable sensors are highly energy-efficient, small in size, and almost part of the wearer’s
regular wardrobe.

Questions

1 List The Different Sensing Considerations

2 What is Virtual sensing?
3 What is Sensing range?

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SESSION - 6
2.7 ACTUATORS
 An actuator can be considered as a machine or system’s component that can affect the
movement or control the said mechanism or the system.
 Control systems affect changes to the environment or property they are controlling through
actuators.
 The system activates the actuator through a control signal, which may be digital or analog.
It elicits a response from the actuator, which is in the form of some form of mechanical
motion.
 The control system of an actuator can be a mechanical or electronic system, a software-
based system (e.g., an autonomous car control system), a human, or any other input. Figure
2.4 shows the outline of a simple actuation system.
 A remote user sends commands to a processor. The processor instructs a motor controlled
robotic arm to perform the commanded tasks accordingly. The processor is primarily
responsible for converting the human commands into sequential machine-language
command sequences, which enables the robot to move. The robotic arm finally moves the
designated boxes, which was its assigned task.

Fig 2.4 The outline of a simple actuation mechanism

2.8 ACTUATOR TYPES

Actuators can be divided into seven classes:
1) Hydraulic,
2) pneumatic,
3) electrical,
4) thermal/magnetic,
5) mechanical,
6) soft, and
7) shape memory polymers.
Figure 2.5 shows some of the commonly used actuators in IoT applications.

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2.8.1 Hydraulic actuators

 A hydraulic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of fluids.
 These actuators facilitate mechanical tasks such as lifting loads through the use of hydraulic
power derived from fluids in cylinders or fluid motors.
 The mechanical motion applied to a hydraulic actuator is converted to either linear, rotary,
or oscillatory motion.
 These hydraulic actuators are also considered as stiff systems.
 The actuator’s limited acceleration restricts its usage.

2.8.2 Pneumatic actuators

 A pneumatic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of gases.
 These actuators use a vacuum or compressed air at high pressure and convert it into either
linear or rotary motion.
 ‘Pneumatic rack and pinion actuators are commonly used for valve controls of water pipes.
 Pneumatic actuators are considered as compliant systems.
 The actuators using pneumatic energy for their operation are typically characterized by the
quick response to starting and stopping signals.
 Small pressure changes can be used for generating large forces through these actuators.
 Pneumatic brakes are an example of this type of actuator which is so responsive that they
can convert small pressure changes applied by drives to generate the massive force
required to stop or slow down a moving vehicle.
 Pneumatic actuators are responsible for converting pressure into force.
 The power source in the pneumatic actuator does not need to be stored in reserve for its
operation.

2.8.3 Electric actuators

 Electric motors are used to power an electric actuator by generating mechanical torque.
 This generated torque is translated into the motion of a motor’s shaft or for switching (as
in relays). For example, actuating equipments such as solenoid valves control the flow of
water in pipes in response to electrical signals. This class of actuators is considered one of
the cheapest, cleanest and speedy actuator types available.
 Figures 2.5(a), 2.5(b), 2.5 (c), 2.5 (d), 2.5 (e), 2.5 (f), 2.5 (i), and 2.5 (j) show some of the
commonly used electrical actuators

Questions

1 List The Different types of Actuator.

2 What is Actuator?
3 What is Hydraulic and pneumatic Actuator?

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SESSION – 7
2.8 ACTUATOR TYPES

2.8.4 Thermal or magnetic actuators

 The use of thermal or magnetic energy is used for powering this class of actuators.
These actuators have a very high power density and are typically compact, lightweight,
and economical.
 One classic example of thermal actuators is shape memory materials (SMMs) such as
shape memory alloys (SMAs).
 These actuators do not require electricity for actuation. They are not affected by
vibration and can work with liquid or gases. Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs)
are a type of magnetic actuators.
2.8.5 Mechanical actuators
 In mechanical actuation, the rotary motion of the actuator is converted into linear
motion to execute some movement.
 The use of gears, rails, pulleys, chains, and other devices are necessary for these
actuators to operate.
 These actuators can be easily used in conjunction with pneumatic, hydraulic, or
electrical actuators. They can also work in a standalone mode.
 The best example of a mechanical actuator is a rack and pinion mechanism. Figures
2.5(g), 2.5 (h), 2.5 (k), and 2.5 (l) show some of the commonly available mechanical
actuators.
 The hydroelectric generator shown in Figures 2.5 (g) and 2.5 (h) convert the water-
flow induced rotary motion of a turbine into electrical energy.
 Similarly, the mechanical switches shown in Figures 2.5 (k) and 2.5 (l) uses the
mechanical motion of the switch to switch on or off an electrical circuit.
2.8.6 Soft actuators
 Soft actuators (e.g., polymer-based) consists of elastomeric polymers that are used as
embedded fixtures in flexible materials such as cloth, paper, fiber, particles, and others
.
 The conversion of molecular level microscopic changes into tangible macroscopic
deformations is the primary working principle of this class of actuators.
 These actuators have a high stake in modern-day robotics.
 They are designed to handle fragile objects such as agricultural fruit harvesting, or
performing precise operations like manipulating the internal organs during robot-
assisted surgeries.

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2.8.7 Shape memory polymers

 Shape memory polymers (SMP) are considered as smart materials that respond to some
external stimulus by changing their shape, and then revert to their original shape once
the affecting stimulus is removed .
 Features such as high strain recovery, biocompatibility, low density, and
biodegradability characterize these materials.
 SMP-based actuators function similar to our muscles. Modern-day SMPs have been
designed to respond to a wide range of stimuli such as pH changes, heat differentials,
light intensity, and frequency changes, magnetic changes, and others.
 Photopolymer/light-activated polymers (LAP) are a particular type of SMP, which
require light as a stimulus to operate.
 LAP-based actuators are characterized by their rapid response times. Using only the
variation of light frequency or its intensity, LAPs can be controlled remotely without
any physical contact.
 The development of LAPs whose shape can be changed by the application of a specific
frequency of light have been reported.
 The polymer retains its shape after removal of the activating light.
 In order to change the polymer back to its original shape, a light stimulus of a different
frequency has to be applied to the polymer

Fig 2.5 Some common commercially available actuators used for IoT-based control
applications

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Questions

1 What is Actuator?
2 What is thermal Actuator?
3 What is Hydraulic and pneumatic Actuator?
4 What is mechanical Actuator?

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SESSION - 8

2.9ACTUATOR CHARACTERISTICS
 The choice or selection of actuators is crucial in an IoT deployment, where a control
mechanism is required after sensing and processing of the information obtained from the
sensed environment.
 Actuators perform the physically heavier tasks in an IoT deployment; tasks which require
moving or changing the orientation of physical objects, changing the state of objects, and
other such activities.
 The correct choice of actuators is necessary for the long-term sustenance and continuity
of operations, as well as for increasing the lifetime of the actuators themselves.
A set of four characteristics can define all actuators.
1. Weight:
 The physical weight of actuators limits its application scope.
 For example, the use of heavier actuators is generally preferred for industrial
applications and applications requiring no mobility of the IoT deployment.
 In contrast, lightweight actuators typically find common usage in portable systems in
vehicles, drones, and home IoT applications.
 It is to be noted that this is not always true.
 Heavier actuators also have selective usage in mobile systems, for example, landing
gears and engine motors in aircraft.
2. Power Rating:
 This helps in deciding the nature of the application with which an actuator can be
associated.
 The power rating defines the minimum and maximum operating power an actuator can
safely withstand without damage to itself. it is indicated as the power-to-weight ratio for
actuators.
 For example, smaller servo motors used in hobby projects typically have a maximum rating
of 5 VDC, 500 mA, which is suitable for an operations-driven battery-based power source.
 Exceeding this limit might be detrimental to the performance of the actuator and may cause
burnout of the motor.
 In contrast to this, servo motors in larger applications have a rating of 460 VAC, 2.5 A,
which requires standalone power supply systems for operations. It is to be noted that
actuators with still higher ratings are available and vary according to application
requirements.

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3. Torque to Weight Ratio:

 The ratio of torque to the weight of the moving part of an instrument/device is referred to
as its torque/weight ratio.
 This indicates the sensitivity of the actuator.
 Higher is the weight of the moving part; lower will be its torque to weight ratio for a given
power.
4. Stiffness and Compliance:
 The resistance of a material against deformation is known as its stiffness, whereas
compliance of a material is the opposite of stiffness.
 Stiffness can be directly related to the modulus of elasticity of that material.
 Stiff systems are considered more accurate than compliant systems as they have a faster
response to the change in load applied to it.
 For example, hydraulic systems are considered as stiff and non-compliant, whereas
pneumatic systems are considered as compliant.

Questions

1 List the characteristics of Actuators.

2 What are weight and power rate in Actuators?
3 What is Torque to Weight Ratio?
4 What is Stiffness and Compliance?

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