Sergey V. Muravyov, Vesa Savolainen
TEACHING MEASUREMENT THEORY IN METROLOGY, STANDARDIZATION AND CERTIFICATION

This paper describes some experiences in solving a difficult problem: organization of teaching General Measurement Theory in a situation where neither widely accepted opinion on its structure and contents nor authoritative textbooks and didactical materials exist. The contents of the discipline's theoretical part and exercises are given. The obligatory minimum of the theoretical part includes studying the initial mathematical concept like sets, binary relations, and mappings; formal logic and algebraic foundations of measurement as a cognitive process; features of measurement on quantitative and qualitative scales; formal models for measurands and procedures; and ways of mathematical description and estimation of measurement errors. Typical assignments are described. Features of the course instructional process organization are considered.

Calmin D. Scarlett, Leonardo A. Clarke, Ryan Turner, Joseph Skobla
CELLULAR BASED GPS ERROR CORRECTION SYSTEM

The Micro-tracking System in development at the Physics Department, University of the West Indies is aimed at providing an effective vehicle and asset tracking system which will cover the entire island of Jamaica. The system uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in determining location of an asset equipped with a processing unit which was develop at UWI. We aim to improve this system by increasing the accuracy and efficiency of the system and adding navigational capabilities [1]. This is a cost effective GPS error correction system designed to work with a GSM cellular network. Several factors introduce errors in GPS based positioning calculations. This system is geared towards reducing and/or eliminating these errors and thus increasing the accuracy of the GPS system. This system is able to provide the same services as the Differential GPS (DGPS) systems which are in use today. The DGPS systems use Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters to broadcast error correction information. Our system which uses the existing cellular phone network will eliminate the expensive RF transmitter and the limitations associated with them, thus drastically reducing cost and increase efficiency significantly. Errors in the psuedorange measurements affect the quality of the GPS solution. These errors can be modelled, and by using DGPS techniques the errors can be removed. Neural Networks and Kalman Filters show much potential in implementing an elegant and efficient solution to the problem. Mapping information and software is needed for both tracking and navigation. The paper is describing implementation of a mapping-software which is able to pin point accurately the GPS receiver position on a digital map. This software will also implement a route planning algorithm, which will be able to generate the “shortest path”, whether shortest time or shortest distance, from point A to point B by considering distance, number of turns, traffic lights, traffic congestion and other dynamic information.

Pasquale Daponte, Domenico Grimaldi, Vladimír Haasz, Linus Michaeli, Ján Šaliga
A TWO YEARS EXPERIENCE FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS

The International Summer School for Master of Science (MS) and PhD students is aimed to give expertise for designing and testing Data Acquisition (DAQ) systems. The students became familiar with various aspects concerning (i) interfaces for measurement instrumentation, (ii) different programming environments for DAQ system software development, and (iii) DAQ system control in the integrated communication and computer networks. Obtained skills allow the student the implementation of design and test methods in any European enterprise with regards to the common standards and products available on the market. The paper presents the two years experiences achieved at organizing the Summer School held in 2001 and 2002, and programmed in 2003, supported by the European SOCRATES/ERASMUS Programme, the IMEKO Working Group on ADC&DAC Metrology, the University partners, and other Institutions.

Aurel Millea, Radu Munteanu, Ionel Urdea Marcus
TEACHING GENERAL METROLOGY: WHY, WHAT, HOW?

Arguments are given in favour of teaching a course of General Metrology in technical universities, and some hints are formulated regarding the content of it. Several questions arise in connection with General Metrology, seen as a technical discipline, rather than a physical one. Is it useful to teach General Metrology as a separate course at a higher education level? If the answer is yes, what would be the best curriculum of such a course? When would it be most appropriate to teach the course, at the beginning or at the end of the series of basic technical disciplines? What are the main benefits such a course would bring to the general formation of the student of a technical university? The paper intends to present some aspects from our experience in this direction, after many years of teaching General Metrology at the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, faculty of Electrotechnics.

Wilhelm Kolaczia
MEASUREMENT OF ROUND TIMBER USING ELECTRONIC MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS

In many countries logging is a very important sector of economy, a factor, which led to an extensive industrialization in the field of wood processing within the last three decades. In particular electronic measurement systems are used to optimise the commercial utilization of the resource “timber” and also for data acquisition in trade and commerce. Modern measuring assemblies for round timber enable not only to acquire the volume of round timber but also to record – self-acting - taper, sweep and ovality. More and more efforts are undertaken to use data - primarily attained for internal purposes only and for pricing, respectively. Therefore, the measurement methods presently used should be analyzed and several criteria for measurement of round timber in the future should be discussed and - last but not least - basic requirements on measurement systems as far as the valuation of features of wood is concerned should be identified.