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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 63, NO. 5, MAY 2014

Rotational Speed Measurement Through

Electrostatic Sensing and Correlation
Signal Processing
Lijuan Wang, Yong Yan, Fellow, IEEE, Yonghui Hu, and Xiangchen Qian

Abstract Rotational speed is a key parameter for the

condition monitoring and control of rotating machineries, such
as generators, electromotors, and centrifugal and machine tool
spindles. It is essential for precision machining and early warning of faults to measure rotational speed in real time. This
paper presents the principle and application of electrostatic
sensors and correlation signal processing techniques to realtime measurement of rotational speed. The electrostatic sensors
and signal conditioning and processing units were designed
and implemented. Experimental tests were conducted on a
laboratory-scale test rig under a range of conditions including
different diameters of the shaft. The results obtained suggest
that the distance between the electrodes and the surface of
the rotating object is a key factor affecting the performance
of the measurement system. The system performs better in
terms of accuracy and repeatability at a higher rotational speed
(>1000 r/min) as more electrostatic charge is produced on the
rotating surface. High and stable correlation coefficients acquired
during the tests suggest that the measurement system is capable
of providing reliable measurement of rotational speed under
realistic industrial conditions.
Index Terms Cross correlation, electrostatic sensor, rotational
speed, speed measurement.

I. I NTRODUCTION

NLINE continuous monitoring of rotational speed is

essential in many industrial processes, such as work
piece machining, plates cutting, steel tube coating, and
wire speed measurement. Some mechanical tachometers like
centrifugal tachometers have been used primitively to gauge
speed of rotational machineries. Subsequently, a variety of
noncontact tachometers based on optical, electrical, and
Manuscript received June 13, 2013; revised October 6, 2013; accepted
October 20, 2013. Date of publication December 11, 2013; date of current
version April 3, 2014. This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51375163, in part by the
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology under Grant 2012CB215203,
in part by the Chinese Ministry of Education under Grant B12034, and in
part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under
Grant 13QN16. The Associate Editor coordinating the review process was Dr.
Subhas Mukhopadhyay.
L. Wang, Y. Hu, and X. Qian are with the School of Control and Computer
Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.
Y. Yan is with the Instrumentation, Control and Embedded Systems
Research Group, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent,
Kent CT2 7NT, U.K., and also with the School of Control and Computer
Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
(e-mail: y.yan@kent.ac.uk).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2013.2292283

magnetic induction principles have been developed [1][4].

Giebeler et al. [5] applied an optimized giant magnetoresistance sensor for rotational speed measurement.
Didosyan et al. [6] described a magneto-optical rotational
speed sensor. Digital image processing techniques have also
been used to measure rotation motion [7]. In recent years,
the estimation of instantaneous rotational speed through vibration signal analysis has been studied by many researchers.
For instance, Bonnardot et al. [8], Combet and Zimroz [9],
Urbanek et al. [10], and Lin and Ding [11] applied different algorithms to extract the instantaneous speed fluctuation from vibration signals. However, all the existing
rotational speed measurement techniques have their limitations for operation in industrial environments. The mechanical
tachometers have low measurement accuracy and a narrow
measurement range. Photoelectric tachometers are susceptible
to hostile operating conditions. Electromagnetic interferences
affect the operation of electromagnetic tachometers. Stroboscopic tachometers can work well in the case of steady rotational speed, but are unsuitable for high-speed measurement.
The imaging-based rotational speed measurement systems are
unsuitable for application in wide industrial processes due to
system complexity, high capital cost, and regular maintenance
requirements.
To date, there has been no reported research in the literature
on rotational speed measurement using electrostatic sensors.
This paper presents for the first time the principle and performance assessment of electrostatic sensors in conjunction with
correlation signal processing algorithms for the measurement
of rotational speed under controlled laboratory conditions.
The sensing principle makes use of the phenomenon that a
rotating device generates electrostatic charge on its surface
due to air friction. An array of electrodes placed adjacent to
the rotating surface can sense the movement of the surface
through electrostatic induction and the rotational speed can
be determined through the cross-correlation of the signals
from the electrodes. Advantages of the proposed technique
include noncontact measurement, low cost, and suitability for
application in hostile environments. Correlation-based velocity
measurement depends primarily on the similarity of the signals
from the sensors, environmental factors, such as temperature and humidity, have thus little impact on the operation
of the measurement system. The induction nature of the
electrostatic sensors with adequate electric field screening
makes this technique unaffected by the deposition of fine

0018-9456 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

WANG et al.: ROTATIONAL SPEED MEASUREMENT

dust on the electrodes and by electromagnetic interference.

In this respect, the technique is advantageous over
photoelectric tachometers. In addition, the simplicity in sensor structure and low cost make the technique suitable
for applications to a wider range of industrial processes
when compared to optical, imaging, and electromagnetic
sensors. The application of electrostatic sensing and correlation techniques to rotational speed measurement has
evolved from earlier work in linear speed measurement.
Electrostatic sensors have been successfully used for the
velocity measurement of pneumatically conveyed particles
[12][14]. Meanwhile, the technique has been applied to
achieve reliable noncontact strip speed measurement [15].
Some of the experimental and modeling work has been
undertaken to study the characteristics of the ring-shaped,
arc-shaped, and square-shaped electrostatic sensors [14],
[16][19]. The basic principle of rotational speed measurement
using electrostatic sensors along with some preliminary results
was first reported at the 2013 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference [20]. This
paper presents in detail the fundamental principle, practical
design, implementation, and evaluation of the measurement
system. The system uses four-strip electrostatic sensors coupled with embedded digital signal processing algorithms. The
experimental work was conducted on a purpose-built test rig
over a speed range from 0 to 3000 RPM (revolutions per
minute).

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Fig. 1. Sensing arrangement and principle of the rotational speed measurement system.

II. M EASUREMENT P RINCIPLE AND S YSTEM D ESIGN

A. Measurement Principle
When a solid object is in a rotational motion, its surface
becomes electrostatically charged due to the relative motion
between the surface of the object and the air. Although it is
difficult to predict accurately the amount of charge on the
surface, an insulated electrode with a suitable electronic circuit
can be used to detect the charge and hence sense the motion
of the surface through electrostatic induction.
Fig. 1 shows the sensing arrangement and principle of the
rotational speed measurement system. An array of identical
electrostatic sensors is evenly distributed around the rotational
object. Random signals are generated on the electrostatic
sensors through electrostatic induction due to the charge
on the moving surface of the object. The randomness of
the signals is a reflection of the surface roughness though
the electrostatic sensing process. The relationship between the
surface roughness and the signal randomness is complex and
extremely difficult to quantify due to the natural complexity
of the 3-D electrostatic field problem. A simplified conceptual
model of the sensors would be that the surface roughness
creates a signature in the random signal through the sensing
process. The signals from the four sensors are similar to
each other due to their physical arrangement with reference
to the rotating object (Fig. 1). However, there is a time
delay between an adjacent pair of signals because one of the
sensors is located downstream of the other. The signals would
never be identical because of the dissimilarity in the electrode
construction and installation, mismatches between the signal

Fig. 2. Typical signals from the electrostatic sensors and resulting correlation
function.

conditioning electronic circuits, and inevitable vibrations of

the relevant mechanical elements in the system.
In general, signal Si+1 (t) is a time-delayed, corrupted
version of signal Si (t) (i = 1, 2, . . ., n), where n is the
number of the electrostatic sensors, which equals four in this
case (Fig. 1), but can range from one to eight, depending
on the size of the rotational object and the requirement
of measurement accuracy. A combination of six correlation
functions can be obtained from the four electrostatic signals.
The final measurement of the rotational speed is averaged
from the individual measurements. This multisensor data
fusion technique [14] based on an array of sensors spatially
arranged around the target object being measured together with
multichannel correlation signal processing algorithms to
improve the accuracy of the rotational speed measurement.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 63, NO. 5, MAY 2014

Fig. 3.

Structure of the electrostatic sensor. (a) Electrode on one side of the PCB. (b) Preamplifier circuit on the other side of the PCB.

Fig. 4.

Block diagram of the measurement system.

Given a pair of signals Si (t) and S j (t) with zero mean, their
corresponding raw correlation function Ri j (t) between them
is given by
Ri j (m) =

1
N

N|m|1


Si (k)S j (k + m)

(1)

k=0

where Si (k) and S j (k) (k = 0, 1, 2, . . ., N1, . . ., N + M1)

represent the discretized signals Si (t) and S j (t), respectively,
N is the number of sampling points, and M is the maximum
number of delayed points m (m = 0, 1, . . ., M). In this paper,
a normalized version of (1) is used
N|m|1


Si (k)S j (k + m)
= 
.
ri j (m) = 

Rii (0) R j j (0)
N1
N1
 2
 2
Si (k)
S j (k)
Ri j (m)

The angular speed between the two signals Si (t) and S j (t)
is given by
i j =

n1


k=0

(2)
This normalized cross correlation is preferred to other forms
in this study to obtain the correlation coefficient, which is
the peak value in the correlation function within the range
[1, 1] as a measure of the similarity between the
two signals [13], [14]. Fig. 2 shows a typical example of the signals and resulting correlation function with
the dominant peak marked out by an arrow on the time
axis. In this example, the correlation coefficient is 0.92.
The other major peaks in the correlation function (Fig. 2)
are due to the periodic nature of the rotational motion
(Fig. 1).

(3)

where i j is the transit time taken by the surface of

the rotational object to move from the i th sensor to the
j th sensor (i , j = 1, 2, . . ., n, j > i). i j is determined from the location of the first dominant peak in
the correlation function between the two signals (Fig. 2).
Cross correlation reflects the similarity of the two signals,
so the signal amplitude has a little impact on the measured
angular speed. The average angular speed of the rotating
object is then derived from a combination of all the individual
measurements

k=0

k=0

( j i )2
ni j

n


i=1 j =i+1
n1


ri j i j

n


i=1 j =i+1

(4)
ri j

where ri j is the correlation coefficient between signals Si (t)

and S j (t), which is determined by the first maximum value
of Ri j
ri j = max(Ri j ).

(5)

Then, the rotational speed of the object is calculated from

30
.
(6)

With this measurement principle, the direction of the rotation motion can also be identified from the location of the
RPM =

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TABLE I
T EST P ROGRAM

Fig. 5.

Test rig for rotational speed measurement.

Fig. 7.

Fig. 6.

Installation of the electrostatic sensing unit.

dominant peak in the correlation function (Fig. 2). Suppose

the sensors are numbered counter-clockwise from position 1
to 4 (Fig. 1), when signal Si+1 (t) is a time-delayed version of
signal Si (t), the dominant peak is thus on the right-hand side
of the correlation function. It can thus be determined that the
object is rotating in counter-clockwise direction. Otherwise, it
is in clockwise direction.
B. Sensor Design
Fig. 3 shows the structure of the electrostatic sensor, including electrodes, insulation material, and connection terminals.
The electrodes are strip shaped and cut out in the printed
circuit board (PCB). Each electrode is 20-mm long and
3-mm wide. The preamplifier circuit is mounted on the other
side of the PCB, which is enclosed by an earthed screen to
avoid external electronic interference.
C. System Design
Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of the rotational speed
measurement system. It consists of a sensing unit, signal conditioning unit, signal processing unit, and system control unit.
The electrostatic signals from the electrodes are converted into
voltage signals and then preamplified at the sensor point before

Original signal waveforms from the four sensors.

being fed into a secondary amplifier. Extensive observations

of the signal characteristics under normal working conditions
have shown that the signals of interest are mostly within
15 kHz. Earlier experience in the use of similar electrostatic
sensors in other applications has shown that maintaining
a good signal bandwidth is essential to achieve reliable
correlation velocity measurement [12][14]. A second-order
Sallen-Key low-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of 15 kHz
is thus deployed to eliminate unwanted high-frequency noise.
The sampling frequency of the system is set to 50 kHz to
inhibit the signal aliasing problem. The analogue signals are
eventually converted to a digital form through an analog
to digital converter of the dsPIC controller. In each signal
processing cycle, a total of 1024 data points are sampled
for each signal before correlation computation. The data
communication between the dsPIC and the host computer
is achieved through an USB interface. The host computer
controls the measurement system and displays the final measurement results.
III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
A. Test Rig
A laboratory-scale rotational speed test rig was designed and
built, as shown in Fig. 5. The shaft is driven by a DC motor
through a coupling. The rotational speed is adjustable from
0 to 3000 RPM with the motor speed controller. An optical
rotary encoder with a resolution of 2000 pulses per revolution
was used to obtain reference data to assess the accuracy
of the measurement system. The shaft is made of dielectric

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 63, NO. 5, MAY 2014

Fig. 8. Correlation functions between the four original signals. (a) S1 and S2 . 12 = 0.005 s. r12 = 0.9797. (b) S2 and S3. 23 = 0.005 s. r23 = 0.9687.
(c) S3 and S4. 34 = 0.005 s. r34 = 0.9723. (d) S1 and S3. 13 = 0.0102 s. r13 = 0.9358. (e) S2 and S4. 24 = 0.0100 s. r24 = 0.9342. (f) S1 and S4.
14 = 0.0150 s. r14 = 0.9200.

materialpolyvinyl chloride (PVC). The four electrostatic

signals are connected to the signal processing board through
shielded cables.
Fig. 6 shows the installation of the electrostatic sensing
unit. The four identical electrostatic sensors are mounted in
the metal shield and evenly distributed around the shaft. The
distance between the shaft surface and the electrodes can be
adjusted via screws.
B. Test Program
To assess the accuracy and repeatability of the measurement
system, a set of experiments, as summarized in Table I, was
conducted on the test rig with the rotational speed ranging
from 0 to 3000 RPM. To explore the effect of the distance
between the shaft surface and the electrodes on the performance of the measurement system, the distance was set to
2, 4, 6, and 8 mm, respectively. Two shafts of the same material but different diameters (60 and 120 mm) were tested. The
shafts were produced using a CNC (computerized numerical
control) machine. The surface roughness of the shafts is Ra
6.3, where Ra is the most commonly used roughness parameter (i.e., arithmetic mean deviation of the surface profile).
Ra 6.3 represents one of the most commonly seen surfaces in
industry.
C. Sensor Signals
Fig. 7 shows a typical set of the four original signal
waveforms when the rotational speed is 3000 RPM and the
distance between the shaft (60-mm diameter) surface and the
electrodes is 2 mm. Scrupulous observations of the signal
waveforms in Fig. 7 show that the signals are indeed random
and similar, but there is a time delay between them. The
randomness of the signal depends on a number of factors. First,

the surface roughness is a key factor affecting the magnitude

of charge and its distribution on the surface. Other main factors
that also affect the surface charge include permittivity and
speed of the shaft and relative humidity of the environment.
Second, the size, shape, and work function of the electrodes
and the frequency response characteristics of the signal conditioning circuits affect the spatial sensitivity of the sensors and
ultimately the amplitude and frequency contents of the signals.
Finally, the geometric relationship between the surface and the
electrodes, in particular, the distance of the electrodes from the
surface, and their relative spatial orientations between them
are important factors affecting the electrostatic induction. It is
through the above physical interactions between the various
elements in the sensing system that the surface roughness is
ultimately reflected in the random nature of the signals. When
the rotor moves continuously, its surface becomes charged and
a dynamic balance is reached between the natural discharge
due to the elapse of time and recharge due to the continuous
motion of the surface.
The transit time for the surface to move from one electrode
to another is determined by cross correlating the corresponding
pair of signals. Fig. 8 shows the main parts of the six correlation functions between the four original signals. The arrow on
the time axis of each correlation function shows the location
of the transit time with the corresponding amplitude being
the correlation coefficient. A high number of minor peaks
are present in the correlation functions (Fig. 8), which is
believed to be due to the inevitable vibrations when the rotor
is in operation. Under all the experimental conditions tested
in this paper, the dominant peak is apparently greater than
the minor peaks, so the performance of the measurement
system is unaffected by the vibrations. In practice, however,
the dominant peak should be 30% higher than the minor
peaks to obtain reliable measurements of the rotation speed if

WANG et al.: ROTATIONAL SPEED MEASUREMENT

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Fig. 9. Comparison between the measured and reference speed. (a) Measured
speed from 60-mm shaft. (b) Measured speed from 120-mm shaft.

strong vibrations are present. This threshold should be set in

the measurement system software.
D. Accuracy
Fig. 9 shows a direct comparison between the measured
speed and the reference speed in the range 03000 RPM with
different distances (L) between the shaft surface (60- and
120-mm diameter) and the electrodes. All the measured rotational speeds in Fig. 9 are average values with a maximum
standard deviation of 2.3%. It is evident that the measured
rotational speed is very close to the reference.
Fig. 10 shows that the relative error between the measured
and reference speeds is within 3% for the small shaft but
less than 2% for the large shaft. As the distance increases,
the relative error becomes greater as less charge is induced on
the electrodes. A shorter distance between the electrodes and
the rotational shaft yields better results. When the distance is
2 mm, the relative error is no greater than 1.5% throughout

Fig. 10.
Relative error of the measured rotational speed. (a) Relative
error: 60-mm shaft. (b) Relative error: 120-mm shaft.

the measurement range. It is difficult to obtain the rotational

speed of the 60-mm shaft when the distance between the
electrodes and the rotational shaft is >8 mm. This means that
the similarity of the signals is significantly reduced when the
sensors are too far away from the rotating surface. Compared
with the smaller shaft, the larger one has given a narrower
range of relative error since more electrostatic charge is
produced by the larger frictional area of the shaft even under
lower speed conditions. Fig. 10 shows that the relative error
between the measured and reference speeds is less than 1%
when the rotational speed is over 2000 RPM even when the
sensors are 8 mm away from the rotating surface. As the
rotational speed increases, the level of electrostatic charge on
the shaft is higher, leading to higher accuracy in the speed
measurement.

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Fig. 11.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 63, NO. 5, MAY 2014

Electrostatic signal strength under different test conditions.

E. Electrostatic Signal Strength

A minimum strength of the electrostatic signals has to be
maintained to achieve a valid measurement of the rotational
speed using electrostatic sensors. In this paper, the root-meansquare (RMS) amplitude of an electrostatic signal is used
to quantify the signal strength. Fig. 11 shows the strength
of the signal from the first electrostatic sensor. It can be
observed from Fig. 11 that the signal strength increases with
the rotational speed due to the increased electrostatic charge
on the rotating surface. When the electrodes are moved away
from the shaft surface, the effect of electrostatic induction on
the electrode is reduced, leading to a weakened signal.
On the whole, the RMS signal strength for the 60-mm shaft
is not greater than 0.15 V for the signal conditioning unit used.
The signal strength is only 0.01 V when the speed is less
than 500 r/min. However, the signal strength from the 120-mm
shaft spans from 0.05 to 0.36 V over the speed range, because
the larger surface area and faster surface speed yield more
electrostatic charge to be detected by the sensor. In this case,
the system performs well even at a lower rotational speed.
F. Repeatability
Repeatability is an important parameter in the performance
evaluation of a measurement system. In this paper, normalized
standard deviation () is used to assess the repeatability of the
measurement system, which is defined as

100%
(7)
=
RPM
where and RPM are the standard deviation and average
value of the measured speed, respectively. The reason to
normalize the absolute standard deviation ( ) to the average
value (RPM) is to achieve a percentage-wise representation of
the repeatability, regardless of the magnitude of the measurand.

When the experimental work was conducted, the noted

ambient temperature and relative humidity were 23.4 C and
68.8%, respectively. A total of 300 measurements under the
same conditions over a period of 60 s were processed in each
repeatability test. It can be observed from Fig. 12 that the
normalized standard deviation is not greater than 4% under all
test conditions. Since these data combine both repeatability of
the speed measurement system and the stability of the test
rig, the actual repeatability of the system should be better
than 4%. As the rotational speed increases, the repeatability
improves partly because of the increased charge on the rotating
surface. As expected, a closer distance between the electrodes
and the rotating surface has resulted in a better repeatability
in the speed measurement. The repeatability tests were also
conducted on different days and the results obtained were
very similar to those shown in Fig. 12. For the larger shaft, its
normalized standard deviation is consistently less than that for
the smaller one at the same speed. In other words, the system
performs better in terms of repeatability when measuring a
larger rotor.
G. Upper Limits of the Distance Between the Shaft
and the Electrodes for Valid Speed Measurement
The above results show that the distance between the shaft
surface and the electrodes plays a significant part in the speed
measurement system. The experiments were thus conducted
to obtain the upper limit of this distance, i.e., the maximum
distance between the shaft surface and the electrodes for valid
speed measurement for a fixed rotor speed. This was achieved
by gradually increasing the distance until the speed reading
from the measurement system became unstable or erroneous.
Fig. 13 shows the upper limits for the two different sized
shafts. It is evident that the upper limit increases with the
speed because of the increased electrostatic charge on the

WANG et al.: ROTATIONAL SPEED MEASUREMENT

1197

Fig. 13.

Upper limits of the sensor distance for valid speed measurement.

Fig. 12. Normalized standard deviation of the measured speed for the two
different sized shafts. (a) Normalized standard deviation: 60-mm-diameter
shaft. (b) Normalized standard deviation: 120-mm-diameter shaft.

shaft surface. A larger shaft generates more charge for the

same speed and hence greater upper limit.

Fig. 14.
S4 (t).

Correlation coefficients between signals S1 (t), S2 (t), S3 (t), and

H. Correlation Coefficient
The correlation coefficient usually depends on the spacing of
the electrodes and the signal-to-noise ratio. A shorter spacing
gives rise to a better similarity between the two signals and
hence higher correlation coefficient. Due to the continuous
rotational motion especially at a higher speed and the presence
of the metal shield, the electrostatic field due to air friction is
relatively stable and hence the signals have a high similarity.
As shown in Fig. 14, the correlation coefficients between
S1 (t) and S2 (t), S1 (t) and S3 (t), and S1 (t) and S4 (t) are
all greater than 0.85. As expected, the closer the sensor
pair, the greater the correlation coefficient. In addition, a
higher rotational speed yields consistently higher correlation
coefficient due to the increased air friction. The correlation
coefficient for the 120-mm shaft is consistently greater than
0.96 and under such conditions, the speed measurement is very
reliable and accurate.

IV. C ONCLUSION
The experimental investigations into the use of electrostatic sensors and correlation signal processing techniques
for the rotational speed measurement have been conducted.
The results obtained have demonstrated that the measurement
system performs well with a maximum error no greater
than 2% under all test conditions over the speed range
03000 r/min. The results have suggested that a shorter
distance between the electrodes and the surface of the
rotational shaft gives better results. The experimental system
has produced more accurate results under higher rotational
speed conditions due to increased electrostatic charge on the
shaft. A larger rotor has generated more charge on its surface
and hence better results. In general, a higher rotational speed, a
shorter distance between the shaft surface and the electrodes,

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 63, NO. 5, MAY 2014

and a larger rotator yield higher signal strength and hence

higher sensitivity and better repeatability. The correlation
coefficients are consistently above 0.85 and significantly better
for a larger rotor.
The level of electrostatic charge due to air friction and the
resulting amplitude of the electrostatic signals depend on the
type and roughness of the object being measured. The results
presented in this paper have demonstrated that the rotational
speed measurement system based on electrostatic sensors and
correlation signal processing algorithms performs well under
the conditions tested. Further research is required to investigate
the performance of the measurement system under a wider
range of conditions. PVC rotors were used in this paper, but
similar results are expected for other dielectric materials. For
metallic objects, however, one or more pieces of dielectric
strips could be stuck on its rotating surface. In addition, the
effects of the surface roughness of the rotor and geometric
shape and dimensions of the electrodes on the performance of
the measurement system should be investigated.

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Lijuan Wang received the B.Eng. degree in computer science and technology from Qiqihar University, Heilongjiang, China, in 2010. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in measurement
and automation with North China Electric Power
University, Beijing, China.
Her current research interests include sensor
design, digital signal processing, and software development.

Yong Yan (M04SM04F11) received the B.Eng.

and M.Sc. degrees in instrumentation and control engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, in 1985 and 1988, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in flow measurement and instrumentation
from the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough,
U.K., in 1992.
He was an Assistant Lecturer with Tsinghua University in 1988. In 1989, he joined the University
of Teesside as a Research Assistant. After a short
period of post-doctoral research, he was a Lecturer
with the University of Teesside from 1993 to 1996, and then as a Senior
Lecturer, Reader, and Professor with the University of Greenwich, Greenwich,
U.K., from 1996 to 2004. He is currently a Professor of electronic instrumentation, the Head of the Instrumentation, Control and Embedded Systems
Research Group, and the Director of Research with the School of Engineering
and Digital Arts, University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. He has published over
280 research papers in journals and conference proceedings in addition to
12 research monographs.
Dr. Yan currently serves as an Associate Editor for the IEEE T RANS ACTIONS ON I NSTRUMENTATION AND M EASUREMENT. He is a fellow of
the Institution of Engineering Technology (IET, formerly IEE), the Institute
of Physics, and the Institute of Measurement and Control. He received the
Achievement Medal by the IEE in 2003, the Engineering Innovation Prize by
the IET in 2006, and the Rushlight Commendation Award in 2009.

WANG et al.: ROTATIONAL SPEED MEASUREMENT

Yonghui Hu received the B.Eng. degree in automation from the Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, and the Ph.D. degree in dynamics and
control from Peking University, Beijing, in 2004 and
2009, respectively.
He was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with Beihang University, Beijing, from 2010 to 2012. He is
currently a Lecturer with the School of Control and
Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power
University, Beijing. His current research interests
include on-line particle sizing, electrostatic sensing,
and advanced mechatronics.

1199

Xiangchen Qian received the B.Eng. degree in

industrial automation from the Tianjin University
of Technology, Tianjin, China, the M.Sc. degree in
automatic measurement and devices from Tianjin
University, Tianjin, in 2004 and 2007, respectively,
and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from
the University of Kent, Kent, U.K. in 2012.
He is currently a Lecturer with the School of
Control and Computer Engineering, North China
Electric Power University, Beijing, China. His current research interests include the development of
on-line gas-solid flow measurement instruments for coal-fired power plants
and other industries, digital signal processing, sensor design, and software
development.