Hi.
The way I want to use LabVIEW is in an attempt to make motor control (e.g., PID) easier for students to analyze and measure.
The idea is to use LabView with in our RoboCup project (
http://robotics.puv.fi) and to create an analysis tool to improve the motion control of the robot based on a variety of parameters.
For example, we want to see if we can still have reliable control (at less then optimal performance of course) somehow when the battery is close to being depleted. The robot still moves at this time, but not reliably. With LabVIEW we can see what really goes on at this stage.
The set-up for this testing environment will be based on an EFIKA with custom designed PCI card which allows a multitude of motors to be connected. This whole system is then connected to a LabVIEW application which can do the measurements and analysis. The reason for using the PCI card on the EFIKA and not on a PC is because the future version of the robot will run on an EFIKA derivative. That way, we can use the final platform already today to develop all the software on.
This is only one concrete example I would like to have here at the University. Others include a whole range of process control setups with EFIKA's taking care of measuring sensor data (even in a sensor network), with the LabVIEW software gathering and analyzing this data.
To speed development up, LabVIEW Embedded can be used on the EFIKA to make life a whole lot easier.
There are many areas where a set-up like that would be very useful, and we believe that a co-operation with the companies in our area could get good results and practical implementations.
Johan.
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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering
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