A microcontroller-based approach to monitoring pneumatic actuators

This paper presents the development of a microcontroller-based process monitoring system that is capable of being embedded within high speed automated assembly systems. A generic architecture is presented to fully utilise the communication, data acquisition and signal processing attributes of a current generation microcontroller. The efficacy of this approach is illustrated by the development of an autonomous method in which the system acquires and analyses transient data related to the operation of a linear actuator. The performance of this system clearly identifies the potential of microcontroller based solutions as very powerful yet affordable real-time quality management tools. The low costs associated with the implementation offer the prospect of affordable integrated quality management to a wide range of industries.