Handbook

Real Time Instrumentation aims to equip students with the necessary and additional computing and hardware skills to be able to work with and design real-time computer systems that are connected as instrumentation and control devices to other electrical and mechanical circuits. The course is problem-based so that students will address the issues associated with and concepts behind building a simple real-time computer system. The course revises the concepts of interrupts, introduces the concept of real-time computing, and discusses why time is important and how it is incorporated into a design, multitasking and multithreading, and simple interprocess communication. Students will learn about and be exposed to various devices that provide an interface between a computer and the environment. Fundamental signal processing and control will be covered, including discrete-time processing, signal filtering and conditioning, state machines, PID control, and numerical integration. Although the course will exercise analytical skills, there is a strong emphasis on practical implementation using a real-time operating system and using the C programming language to interface with and control real hardware.