A course in measurement systems

The author describes the University of Teesside BEng (Hons) degree course in Instrumentation and Control Engineering which it has run since 1968. The study of Instrumentation forms an important strand of this course. The aim is to teach Instrumentation as a coherent and integrated discipline by treating it as the study of measurement systems. A measurement system is an information system which presents the observer with a numerical value corresponding to the variable being measured. The performance of the system is quantified using measurement error which is the difference between the measured value and the true value. A complete study of measurement systems can be divided into three parts. Part A examines general systems principles. In Part B the principles, characteristics and applications of typical measurement system elements are examined. In Part C a number of specialised measurement systems which have important industrial applications are examined