Abstract
The past 50 years have seen many technical advances in measurement science and technology, from simple off-line monitors of product quantity and quality, to automatic inspection in production lines and measurement systems online within process manufacturing, to use with advanced automation equipment, to condition monitoring of machinery, to preventative maintenance diagnostics, to improved non-destructive testing, to more precise and stable metrology standards and to instruments for the new sciences. Applications for better and new measurement instrumentation have multiplied as transportation, health care and life sciences, food quality and environmental concerns have grown.
A high proportion of measurement equipment is integral to other engineering and science equipment and therefore almost hidden from view, but without this measurement instrumentation, the engineering and science assets could not exist. In effect, measurement equipment provides essential ‘underpinning, enabling and leverage’, and it is, therefore, important for economic growth and improvements to quality of life.
Unfortunately, measurement as an enterprise is largely taken for granted and therefore little understood outside a relatively small circle of measurement enthusiasts and practitioners. Part of the problem is that outside metrological science, it is mainly a skill-based subject and not driven by mathematics as is largely the case with automatic control. Also, unfortunately today, British people seem to find it difficult to give due recognition to vocational skills outside sport and the surgeons theatre!
This is a shame because our very early ancestors and then Homo sapiens got into quantification as a skill to aid survival of the group. Humans now develop measurement scales and measurement standards to suit particular purposes, and there is a real subjective nature to the activity.
Perhaps this is why I have spent my engineering career in the field of measurement science and technology. I have been pleased to work with many people in academia and industry, at home and around the world, in many industrial sectors, and make use of a multitude of technologies. Science and engineering communities, certainly in Britain, find the multidisciplinary framework for study and practice difficult to engage with, although this is the right framework for much problem solving and the earning of one’s living in the modern world.
I soon came to realise that measurement as a field of study was no longer a fragmented ‘bits and pieces’ subject, but properly considered was very much a separate and coherent subject with its own theory and practice and could be understood and be practised in a systematic way to achieve the best measurement outcomes.
This themed issue covers three broad topics: measurement history and fundamentals, measurement instrumentation and sensors and measurement innovation and impact. Of course, it is not possible to provide subject depth to such a large topic field in only 13,000 words or so, and therefore, I have chosen not to reference many research articles but instead to provide up-to-date authoritative bibliographies on relevant aspects of the theme.
I have tried to give a flavour of the subject from the standpoint of an enthusiast (the basic definition of a full-time university professor!). Some points of view are expressed, but this journal does have a letter page for readers to share their experiences and views.
In these short articles, I try to show that just as our past has been and our present is very dependent upon measurement of quantities, so will our future significantly depend upon our responses to measurement of physical, chemical and biochemical quantities. There can be no more important topic in science, engineering and technology.
Let me just say that my own university centres and research groups during some 40 years of teaching and research have developed many feedback measuring systems, fibre optic sensors, acoustic emission sensing and diagnostic equipment and resonant sensor systems using both thin and thick film excitation/sensing, and for a wide range of applications, as well as performing research work on various measurement standards with National Physical Laboratory (NPL) at Teddington over a 20-year period, all contributing towards some 350 articles and patents.
My working links during the years to some 30 enterprises at home and abroad and attendance at some 70 international measurement conferences, particularly in Europe, being a member of some of their organising and technical programme committees. Also being author and editor of five measurement books, acting as honorary editor for a learned society international measurement journal and then being senior editor for nearly 30 years of a leading international series of books on sensors has been very stimulating and provided me with a wide view on many aspects of modern measurement science and technology.
In addition, my activities with five professional institutions, IMEKO and working groups of the UK National Measurement System, government technical visits to the Far East, the founding of several measurement instrumentation start-up companies, as well as developing lecture/laboratory courses and directing industrial training activities at all levels in the subject have given me some other opportunities to contribute to professional engineering and technology and influence both people and future developments in the subject.
I do hope these articles will find some resonances with the readers of this journal.