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 validationtemperature 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.