Since 1986, LabVIEW software has been helping engineers and scientists overcome the challenge of developing data acquisition and control systems.Now, as the graphical programming language developed by National Instruments, Austin, Texas, enters its third decade, history is beginning to repeat itself, but in the more mechanically complex environment of automated motion control.

LabVIEW, with its innately parallel processing environment and hierarchical structure, has always been well suited for programmable automation. It only recently became practical, however, with the advent of high-speed processors, digital industrial networks, and real-time kernels. With an entire field of untapped motion applications ahead of it, LabVIEW is now appealing to a growing number of motor makers, including Yaskawa Electric America Inc., Waukegan, Ill., and Maxon Motor USA, Fall River, Mass., which now offer LabVIEW drivers with their products. Aided by product-specific plug-ins, designers working in LabVIEW can quickly integrate automation systems, in some cases, getting them running in just 15 minutes.

"LabVIEW is well adapted for motion, letting users model, prototype, and deploy highly customized applications," says Yaskawa's Andy Urda. As for motor control, the latest version supports standard servos and steppers via pulse-and-direction and analog (+/-10 V) functions. But with third-party software, like the Yaskawa and Maxon plug-ins, LabVIEW can extend its control over much more.

According to Urda, Yaskawa is in the process of releasing a LabVIEW plug-in to control the company's servodrives, motors, and variable-frequency drives over Mechatrolink, a digital motion and control network. By accessing the plug-in, LabVIEW users will be able to create, program, and control any (10 W to 75 kW) rotary, direct-drive, and linear motor (from Yaskawa) based on speed and position commands. The typical implementation is over a PCI port, linking up to 30 independent drives, making point-to-point (asynchronous) moves.

Besides speeding up design projects, LabVIEW’s arrival to motion-centric automation also promises to accelerate the growing use of machine vision in manufacturing. Aside from the optics, machine vision boils down to signal processing, and has been a common application for LabVIEW for some time. One outgrowth of this is the National Instruments Vision Development Module, created to help LabVIEW users set up and program vision systems incorporating best-in-class components.

One of those components may be the company's new "smart camera," a recently developed vision sensor with an embedded LabVIEW engine. By connecting motors and other intelligent devices to the camera, designers can now integrate motion and vision functions, processing signals from both environments concurrently along a common timebase.

"Suppose you want to automate a vision inspection application," says Urda. "With LabVIEW, Mechatrolink, and some Yaskawa motors, you can program the camera to move to the inspection site or just as easily program the product to move to the camera," he explains. "Either way, once in range, you can acquire and process the vision information in the same LabVIEW program."

Another door that opens with LabVIEW is the potential to do full system simulation that extends from the component to the function as well as process level. By incorporating 3D models from Solidworks and other CAD packages, LabVIEW can shorten the path from concept to production, further accelerating project development times.

More Information:
National Instruments