Data Acquisition Systems

A data acquisition system is a collection of software and hardware that allows one to measure or control physical characteristics of something in the real world. A complete data acquisition system consists of DAQ hardware, sensors and actuators, signal conditioning hardware, and a computer running DAQ software.

The components of data acquisition systems include:

• Sensors, to convert physical parameters to electrical signals.
• Signal conditioning circuitry to convert sensor signals into a form that can be converted to digital values.
• Analog-to-digital converters, to convert conditioned sensor signals to digital values.

Data acquisition begins with the physical phenomenon or physical property to be measured. Examples of this include temperature, light intensity, gas pressure, fluid flow, and force. Regardless of the type of physical property to be measured, the physical state that is to be measured must first be transformed into a unified form that can be sampled by a data acquisition system.