Content
Overview
Dynamic measurements can be found in many areas of metrology and industry such as, for instance, in the measurement of time-dependent forces or accelerations. Methods from signal processing are often applied in the analysis of dynamic measurements. In many applications linear time-invariant systems are appropriate to model dynamic measurements, where the output signal is obtained as a convolution of the input signal and the measurement system’s impulse response. Input and output signal are not proportional to each other, and estimation of the system’s input signal from its output signal constitutes one important task in the analysis of dynamic measurements. Often digital filters are employed for this purpose. The evaluation of the uncertainty associated with the estimated input signal is particularly important from a metrological perspective.
Typical examples are measurements of mechanical quantities as, for example, force, torque and pressure. Further examples are oscilloscope measurements for the characterization of high speed electronics, hydrophone measurements for the characterization of medical ultrasound devices, the spectral characterization of radiation sources, spectral color measurements and camera-aided temperature measurements.
Research
One focus of PTB‘s Working Group 8.42 is the development of methods for the estimation of the input signal from the output signal when the dynamic behavior of the measurement system has been characterized. This includes the development of procedures for the evaluation of the uncertainty associated with the estimated input signal. Another focus is the development of methods for the analysis of dynamic calibration measurements aimed at determining the dynamic behavior of a measurement system.
Software
Publications
Publication single view
Article
| Title: | GUM2DFT — a software tool for uncertainty evaluation of transient signals in the frequency domain |
|---|---|
| Author(s): | S. Eichstädt and V. Wilkens |
| Journal: | Measurement Science and Technology |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Volume: | 27 |
| Issue: | 5 |
| Pages: | 055001 |
| DOI: | 10.1088/0957-0233/27/5/055001 |
| Keywords: | dynamic measurements; deconvolution; discrete Fourier transform; uncertainty; |
| Tags: | 8.42, Dynamik |
| Abstract: | The Fourier transform and its counterpart for discrete time signals, the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), are common tools in measurement science and application. Although almost every scientific software package offers ready-to-use implementations of the DFT, the propagation of uncertainties in line with the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM) is typically neglected. This is of particular importance in dynamic metrology, when input estimation is carried out by deconvolution in the frequency domain. To this end, we present the new open-source software tool GUM2DFT , which utilizes closed formulas for the efficient propagation of uncertainties for the application of the DFT, inverse DFT and input estimation in the frequency domain. It handles different frequency domain representations, accounts for autocorrelation and takes advantage of the symmetry inherent in the DFT result for real-valued time domain signals. All tools are presented in terms of examples which form part of the software package. GUM2DFT will foster GUM-compliant evaluation of uncertainty in a DFT-based analysis and enable metrologists to include uncertainty evaluations in their routine work. |