Key Technologies in the Development of Modern Instruments and Meters

The development of China’s instrumentation and control industry has advanced in tandem with global trends; the following section analyzes the key technologies driving the evolution of modern instrumentation and control systems.

① Reliability Technology

As the application domains of instrumentation and measurement-and-control systems continue to expand, reliability engineering—particularly in military, aerospace, power, nuclear-industry facilities, large-scale engineering projects, and industrial production—plays a critical role in enhancing operational effectiveness and ensuring uninterrupted system performance. In these sectors, even a single failure can lead to catastrophic consequences. Therefore, the reliability, safety, and maintainability of equipment—and especially of the entire system, including its measurement-and-control subsystems—are of paramount importance. For instance, the widespread blackout that struck the United States and Canada on August 15, 2003, should never have been allowed to escalate simply because of a localized equipment failure.

Reliability engineering for instrumentation and measurement-and-control systems encompasses not only the reliability of the measurement-and-control devices and systems themselves, but also the fault-handling techniques employed when such devices or systems fail. The reliability of these devices and systems includes self-diagnosis and self-isolation of faults, fault-tolerant design and self-repair capabilities, fault-tolerance strategies, reliability-oriented design methodologies, and reliability-focused manufacturing practices, among others.

② System Integration Technology

System integration technology directly affects the scope and sophistication of applications in instrumentation and measurement–control science and technology, particularly exerting a decisive influence on the level of automation and overall performance of large-scale projects, complex systems, and major installations. It is an information-fusion control technology at the system level, encompassing system requirements analysis and modeling techniques, physical-layer configuration methods, intercommunication and conversion technologies for information among system components, and implementation strategies for control at the application layer. When operators comprise diverse functional groups with varying roles, it also includes techniques for analyzing the requirements of operators at all hierarchical levels.

③ Human-Machine Interface Technology

Human–machine interface technology is primarily designed to facilitate the operation of instruments and meters by their operators, as well as the operation of the main equipment and systems equipped with such instruments and meters. It transforms instruments and meters into direct tools through which humans can perceive and transform the world. The operability and maintainability of instruments and meters—and even of the main equipment and systems that incorporate them—are largely determined by human–machine interface technology. An instrument or meter that features an aesthetically pleasing, refined, easy-to-use, and easily maintainable human–machine interface often becomes a key criterion for users when selecting instruments and meters, as well as the main equipment and systems that house them.

Human–machine friendly interface technologies encompass display technology, hard-copy output technology, human–machine dialogue technology, and fault-handling manual intervention technology, among others. As operators evolve from single-machine, single-person setups to multi-position, systemized, and networked environments, human–machine friendly interface technologies are advancing toward large-scale human–machine systems engineering. Moreover, with the increasing systemization and networking of instrumentation and control devices, technologies for identifying specific operators and preventing unauthorized personnel from intervening are receiving growing attention.

④ Intelligent Control Technology

Intelligent control technology is the capability by which humans, through measurement and control systems, monitor intelligent tools, equipment, and systems in a manner that approaches optimal performance to achieve predetermined objectives. It is a technology that directly influences the effectiveness of measurement and control systems and represents a critical step in the evolution from information technology toward knowledge-based and knowledge-driven economic technologies. In essence, intelligent control technology constitutes the most important and pivotal software resource within measurement and control systems. Based on current development trends, in enterprise-level computerized measurement and control systems structured in an ERP–MES–PCS three-tier architecture, software costs have already surpassed hardware costs by more than threefold; moreover, in advanced automation and measurement–control systems used in the petrochemical, metallurgical, power, and pharmaceutical industries, the cost of sophisticated control software often exceeds the cost of the system hardware itself. Intelligent control technology encompasses such capabilities as human-like feature extraction, automatic target identification, knowledge-based self-learning, environmental adaptability, and optimal decision-making.

⑤ Sensing Technology

Sensor technology is not only the foundation for measurement in instrumentation but also the foundation for control in instrumentation. This is because control must be based on the information obtained through sensing, and because the precision and state of the controlled system can only be accurately perceived; otherwise, any control whose effectiveness remains unclear is essentially blind control.

In a broad sense, sensing technology must perceive information in three domains: the state and characteristics of the objective world; the state and characteristics of the system being monitored and controlled; and the state information and control instructions that operators need to understand. It is important to note that the objective world is infinitely diverse, yet the perception of this world by monitoring and control systems is primarily focused on the objective environment relevant to the target—hereafter referred to as the “designated target environment.” Environmental information outside this designated target environment can be acquired through other means. The system being monitored and controlled may be a simple object or a single sample; it may also be a complex automated system that operates without direct human intervention; it could be a large-scale automated system or a social activity system operated by one or more individuals; or it could even be the human body itself. Sensing technologies aimed at monitoring human health, physiological conditions, and psychological states form the foundation and core of medical diagnostic and therapeutic instruments. Operators may be individual persons, but in systematic and networked contexts they often comprise groups of personnel performing different roles.

In a narrow sense, sensing technology primarily involves the detection of useful information from the objective world. It encompasses sensitive technologies for measuring relevant physical quantities, drawing on principles from various disciplines, as well as remote sensing and telemetry, and new materials; information-fusion technologies, covering sensor deployment, extraction (and enhancement) of weak signals, sensor-data fusion, and imaging; and sensor-manufacturing technologies, including microfabrication, biochips, and novel fabrication processes.