Graphical System Design for Machine Control by National Instruments

20 August 2008

The traditional process for designing embedded machine control systems typically involves multiple stages of development that each requires specialised electronic design automation (EDA) tools such as state-diagram and flowcharting tools, SPICE circuit simulation, board layout and routing, control design tools, finite element analysis (FEA), C and VHDL languages, multiple target-specific compilers, and human-machine interface (HMI) tools.

National Instruments White Paper

New highly automated graphical system design (GSD) tools and PAC hardware systems can help you streamline the machine control development process. These new GSD tools offer complete customisation of reconfigurable FPGAs, real-time processors, and industrial I/O modules using the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming language. These new GSD tools offer complete customisation of reconfigurable FPGAs, real-time processors, and industrial I/O modules using the National Instruments LabVIEW graphical programming language. With NI LabVIEW tools, you have open access to low-level resources while taking advantage of easy embedded programming and hundreds of built-in functions for automating common machine control tasks. PAC hardware systems, such as the CompactRIO embedded system, are designed for seamless integration with the LabVIEW GSD tool chain. With PACs, you can build advanced systems incorporating software capabilities such as advanced control, communication, data logging, and signal processing with a rugged controller performing logic, motion, process control, and vision.