When a Datum Is Not a Measurement: A Doctrinal When a Datum Is Not a Measurement: A Doctrinal Account of Metrological Traceability in Engineering Data Systems of Metrological Traceability in Engineering Data Systems
Keywords:
Sensor Informatics, Metrological TraceabilityAbstract
Engineering Informatics considers any input data to have been captured and treated as "data" once it can be saved (stored), graphed, or fed into a predictive model. On the other hand, metrology considers an input value to be a "measurement", only if there exists a defined relationship with a specified unit via a documented, unbroken series of calibrations where each contributes an explicitly quantifiable amount of uncertainty. This conceptual paper uses this distinction to describe how engineering data systems should be developed. It interprets the International Vocabulary of Metrology, the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 10012, and various digital twin and data quality instruments as mutually limiting resources. The central argument made here is that a pipeline, twin or operational model which omits to identify the units, the calibration status, or the uncertainties associated with the measurements being modeled has not simply lost some useful metadata; it has converted a measurement into a number. There are three tests presented: Unit Continuity Test, Calibration-Chain Continuity Test, and Uncertainty Inheritance Test. A Metrological Integrity Chain is proposed as a small footprint overlay on top of engineering data systems. The reconstruction is theoretical, not a laboratory intercomparison, and it is offered as a completeness criterion for later empirical studies that claim to act on sensor evidence.
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