News briefs
-- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2010 2:00:00 AM
NI pursues robot revolution
National Instruments is supporting the “robot revolution” with the latest release of its LabView Robotics software, which provides a development platform for designing robotic and autonomous control systems. With LabView Robotics 2009, the company hopes to capitalize on what it sees as a burgeoning market for robots, citing that one-third of US military vehicles must be autonomous by 2015 (representing a $52 billion market) and that the educational robotics market will reach $1.96 billion by 2014.
The company positions LabView as a tool for meeting the challenges that it says currently limit our use of robots in day-to-day lives; such challenges span software design (involving modeling, simulation, and algorithm design), embedded system design (involving analog and digital I/O, protocols, motion control, concurrency, and determinism), and connectivity (dealing with actuators, sensors, and motors). LabView Robotics 2009 ties together LabView Real-Time, LabView FPGA, NI Vision, LabView Control Design and Simulation, LabView SoftMotion, LabView Statechart, LabView Mathscript RT, and LabView PID Toolkit. It adds robotics IP for sensing, connectivity, protocols, path planning, obstacle avoidance, and steering.
Target hardware platforms include NI CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO, and a new LabView Robotics starter kit. NI said it is collaborating with companies including Cogmation Robotics (on system simulation), Energid (kinematics), Hokuyo (LIDAR sensors), iRobot (hardware integration), Microsoft (system simulation), MobileRobots (hardware integration), Maxon Motor (smart-motor connectivity), Pitsco Education (OEM and academic starter kits), Skilligent (vision software), TORC (the JAUS protocol), and Velodyne (LIDAR sensors) to add capabilities. www.ni.com.
Chip sales on the rise?
In what may be a hopeful sign for the test industry, the SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association) reports that worldwide sales of semiconductors rose to $22.6 billion in November 2009, a 3.7% increase over the $21.8 billion of sales in October (monthly sales numbers represent a three-month moving average). The organization also found that sales were 8.5% higher than the $20.9 billion in sales in November 2008. This increase came at the end of a year in which sales for the first 11 months declined 13.2% compared to the same period in 2008.
“For the first time in 2009, worldwide semiconductor sales in November were in positive territory compared to one year ago,” said SIA president George Scalise in a prepared statement. “2009 ended with sales of many IT and consumer products faring better than earlier projections. Sales of personal computers continue to strengthen in line with recent projections and appear to signal the beginning of recovery of demand from the business sector. The release of the Windows 7 operating system in October has been a positive factor. Unit sales of handsets should come in roughly even with 2008 levels. In the consumer space, there have been a few bright spots including LCD TVs, which saw an increase of 25 to 30% in units in 2009.” www.sia-online.org.
Trig-Tek is now part of EADS North America
EADS North America Test and Services announced the acquisition of Trig-Tek, a provider of precision, dynamic test and measurement instruments for the US aerospace and defense markets.
“Trig-Tek is an excellent acquisition and a good fit for our engineer-to-engineer culture,” said Jim Mulato, president of EADS North America Test and Services. “Its complementary product line will enable us to provide even more complete, tailored test solutions to our military, semiconductor, and engine test customers.” Lyle Wells, president and owner of Trig-Tek, will remain in a consulting role. www.eads-nadefense.com.
IOtech, Measurement Computing to combine
IOtech and Measurement Computing, subsidiaries of National Instruments, will integrate their product lines during 2010 and become combined under the Measurement Computing name. The companies began sharing resources in 2007 but kept their operations independent until now.
IOtech’s data-acquisition products will be manufactured at the Measurement Computing facility in Norton, MA. The product lines include the USB PersonalDaq, Ethernet-based data recorders, PCI cards, and stand-alone dataloggers. IOtech’s vibration-analyzer product line will move to NI headquarters in Austin, TX. www.mccdaq.com.
Adlink introduces PoE frame grabber
Adlink Technology has announced the release of the GIE62+ PoE (Power over Ethernet) frame grabber, which provides two independent GigE (Gigabit Ethernet) ports for multiple GigE Vision device connections with data transfer rates up to 1 Gbps. By supporting the LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol), the two GigE ports can be configured as a LAG (Link Aggregation Group) and provide a sustained maximum data rate of 2 Gbps.
The GIE62+ is the company’s latest addition to its “power over cable” series of frame grabbers, supporting PoCL (Power over Camera Link), IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800), and now PoE. “Power over cable” enables single cable connections between cameras and frame grabbers to provide both data and power.
The frame grabber includes two isolated TTL digital inputs, two outputs, and two programmable trigger pulse inputs to connect to external devices such as position sensors and strobe lighting. The GIE62+ also provides automatic detection of being a powered device within the system to ensure reliable connections between other PoE and non-PoE cameras and frame-grabber cards.
Base price: $279. Adlink Technology, www.adlinktech.com.
DAQ systems offer PC control
The DS206 and DS207 data-acquisition systems from Dynamic Signals provide 16-bit analog inputs in several configurations, channel counts, and sampling rates. The USB-controlled DS206 provides six analog inputs, two analog outputs, and 16 digital (TTL-level) I/O channels. It can simultaneously sample on all six inputs at 50 ksamples/s.
The DS207 has two versions: DS207-100 and DS207-250. Both connect to a PC through a StarFabric connection. The DS207-100 is available with 32, 64, or 128 analog inputs with an aggregate sampling rate of 100 ksamples/s. You can cascade two units to get up to 256 channels. The analog inputs have programmable gain and scan rates and have optional low-pass filters to prevent aliasing. The DS207-250 has eight analog inputs (expandable to 16) and simultaneously samples all channels at 250 ksamples/s. It includes signal conditioning for bridge completion and has programmable gain, excitation, and calibration.
All models come with daView software that lets you configure all channels and plot data through a graphical interface.
Prices: DS206—$800; DS207-100—$50/channel; DS207-250—$650/channel. Dynamic Signals, www.dynamicsignals.com.
Calendar
OFCNFOEC, March 21–25, San Diego, CA. Optical Society of America. www.ofcnfoec.org.
Measurement Science Conference, March 22–26, Pasadena, CA. Measurement Science Conference. www.msc-conf.com.
APEX, April 6–9, Las Vegas, NV. IPC. www.goipcshows.org.
SAE World Congress, April 13–15, Detroit, MI. SAE International. www.sae.org.
To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.
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