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Measurement data in IoT networks

New PTB service for the metrological validation of digital data

PTB News 2.2021
26.03.2021
Especially interesting for

industrial applications in IoT networks

metrology institutes

PTB offers users from industry a new service. It can now validate whether measurement data that are transmitted within IoT networks comply with essential metrological requirements. For this purpose, PTB’s TraCIM service, which has already been established for many years, has been enhanced.

Measurement data that are used in Industry 4.0 and in IoT networks must be error-free and unambiguous for both people and machines alike. Digital applications such as those used in healthcare or for domestic meters would be absolutely unimaginable if the data formats used were not reliable. To this end, PTB, together with partners from metrology, industry and research, is developing digital approaches to deal with measurement data. A basis for exchanging metrological data has therefore been created within the scope of the SmartCom European EMPIR project entitled “Communication and validation of smart data in IoT networks”. This includes the digital system of units (D-SI), a data model for the SI-based, machine-interpretable communication of measurement data and measuring instrument data. It was developed to establish the SI as a link between different systems in such a way that the units used for a machine are always automatically SI units. SmartCom DCC is the name of the digital calibration certificate that complies with these requirements.

By means of PTB’s new validation server, it is now possible to check whether these measurement data also comply with the fundamental metrological requirements of the International System of Units (SI), the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM), and the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) during and after being transmitted within IoT networks.

The validation server has existed for a number of years under the name of TraCIM (traceability for computationally intensive metrology) and was first used to analyze evaluation algorithms used in coordinate metrology. The server was extended step by step and has now been equipped with a new module for the validation of the new SI-based formats.

For the validation service to be applied, all data must be made available in XML, in accordance with the D-SI format, for instance, in a SmartCom DCC. After uploading the data or DCCs, the server assesses the SI units used and checks the completeness of all the metrological information. A test certificate is generated automatically. It shows the quality class achieved: PLATINUM (all units are SI base units); GOLD (SI units with a prefix or units derived from the SI with their own symbol); SILVER (permitted non-SI units); BRONZE (units that were removed from the SI after its revision in 2019); and IMPROVABLE (e.g. data without units). This new PTB service is aimed, in particular, at clients from industry.

Contact

Daniel Hutzschenreuter
Division 1 Mechanics and Acoustics
Phone: +49 531 592-1149
Opens local program for sending emailsmartcom(at)ptb.de

Website of PTB’s TraCIM Server II: Opens external link in new windowhttps://smartcom-tracim.ptb.de/tracim-server-2.0/

User manual of the new service

Traceability for computationally-intensive metrology – Test for communication interfaces used for the exchange of metrological data. doi.org.10.5281/zenodo.3953555