An Efficient Data Acquisition System for Launch Vehicle Telemetry

Data Acquisition and Telemetry are the key features of many demanding applications like industry and aerospace. In launch vehicle systems, it is essential to monitor and analyze the real time performance so that designs can be validated and tunable parameters could be adjusted to increase the performance and efficiency. Currently used DAQ systems are of increased size, weight and turn out to be costly and power hungry. In this work, a new mission-independent real time software programmable DAQ system using versatile MCU and sigma delta ADCs are proposed, taking into account size, weight, cost and performance without compromise on accuracy, resolution and drift performance. Additional digital filtering stages are also added to improve the system performance. This system is capable for direct connections with different pressure and temperature sensors which interfaces 32 low frequency channel and two high frequency channels. The system proposed operates in two modes, one is data acquisition mode and the other is program mode. Effective power reduction techniques and wireless interface protocol between different data acquisition modules are also touched upon as avenues for future work.