A Handheld Programmable-Logic-Device-Based Temperature and Relative-Humidity Sensor, Processor, and Display System Platform for Automation and Control of Industry Processes

The development, testing, and validation of a small versatile battery-powered handheld programmable-logic-device (PLD)-based temperature and relative-humidity (RH) sensor, processor, and display system platform is addressed in this paper. An initial and illustrative application of the platform, which is used for its validation-temperature and RH sensing, calculation, and display of equilibrium moisture content of wood, is described. The platform may be utilized for computation and display of a range of temperature- and RH-sensitive metrics/parameters of importance to other process industries. The cost of the platform is important but not the highest priority. As illustrated in the wood-process-industry application of the platform, a higher priority is an ability to efficiently explore, implement, and compare, in a timely manner, different processor microarchitectures and display system formats which may be used in the calculation and display of any process-industry temperature- and/or RH-dependent process metric(s). This could include simultaneous calculation and display of multiple metrics which are a function of temperature and RH. After comparison, a best processor microarchitecture and display system can then be chosen and implemented based on specific industry process application performance/cost and other requirements. A PLD-based sensor, processor, and display system platform offers this opportunity.