Proximity, photoelectric, ultrasonic, and laser sensing, encoders, RTDs and thermocouples, pressure/flow/force sensors, load cells, accelerometers, gyroscopes, and vision systems — selection, wiring, calibration, and troubleshooting, worked with real numbers.
Every control loop, motion profile, and automation decision downstream in this program acts on a number a sensor reported, not on what is physically happening in the machine — if that number is wrong, stale, or noisy, everything built on top of it is wrong in exactly the same way. This module works through the sensing technologies that show up across almost every real mechatronic machine one at a time: what physical quantity each one measures, how it is selected and wired, what corrupts its signal, and how it is calibrated and diagnosed when a reading looks wrong.
Two worked examples anchor the module in real numbers: converting a quadrature encoder's line count into true angular resolution — and showing exactly how that resolution changes once a gear ratio is introduced between the encoder and the output — and sizing a load cell's Wheatstone-bridge output voltage from its rated sensitivity and excitation supply.