Portable Calibration Standards for Traceability

DDL OMNI proposes a ruggedized, portable, programmable device for the calibration of embedded sensor networks. Based entirely on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software, DDL OMNI proposes to instrument a system to quantifying the performance of sensors to NIST traceable standards. The proposed device is a self-contained calibration test standard housing a commercial Pentium processor and interface cards capable of simultaneous multi-channel source output and measurement input. Combined with tailored application software the design is modular, scaleable, extensible, traceable and consistent with commercial development trends. Designed to meet open architecture tenets, protocols and communications, the device ensures interoperability with multi-vendor equipment and future sensor developments. The resulting device is capable of performing a wide array of simulation/stimulation output, measuring and quantifying the sensor/system response output, and providing simultaneous monitored control of the output source signal. The packaged system provides comprehensive automated closed-loop calibration and monitoring with operator intuitive displays and indicators for rapid status assessments. Further, once implemented, the device can analyze historical sensor performance trends for the development of condition-based calibration requirements.