NI pursues robot revolution
National Instruments is moving aggressively to support the “robot revolution” with its announcement of LabView Robotics 2009, which provides a standard development platform for designing robotic and autonomous control systems. With the new release, the company hopes to capitalize on what it forecasts is a burgeoning market for robots, citing these figures:
–One-third of US military vehicles must be autonomous by 2015, representing a $52 billion market.
–The educational robotics market will reach $1.96 billion by 2014.
–By 2012, service robots for professional use will increase 78%, service robots for household use will increase 109%, and robots for entertainment and leisure will increase 239%.
With LabView for Robots 2009, NI aims to overcome the challenges that currently limit robot usage in our day-to-day lives. Those 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). The company positions LabView as a key tool in meeting that challenge and has received support for that position from Dr. David Barrett, Director of SCOPE (Senior Capstone Program in Engineering) at Olin College and former VP of engineering at iRobot, who delivered a keynote address last summer’s NIWeek an The robotics industry, he said, requires an industrial-grade, hardened, richly supported software development system, noting that LabView may well fit that description.
The LabView for Robots 2009 release takes aim at making sure LabView fits Barrett’s description, delivering an extensive robotics library with connectivity to standard robotic sensors and actuators, foundational algorithms for intelligent operations and perception, and motion functions for robots and autonomous vehicles. The release 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 (on system simulation), Energid (kinematics), Hokuyo (LIDAR sensors), iRobot (hardware integration), Microsoft (system simulation), MobileRobots (hardware integration), MaxonMotors (smart-motor connectivity), Pitsco (OEM and academic starter kits), Skilligent (vision software), TORC (the JAUS protocol), and Velodyne (LIDAR sensors) to add capabilities.
The base price for a robotics starter kit, including a 180-day evaluation of the LabView robotics software bundle, is $1999 ($1599 for academic customers).
Frank commented:
I agree with David above. I feel that the LabVIEW base products are reasonably priced but your add-ons are priced way too high. There is going to be a lot of competition in this field so NI needs to step up to the plate and help us move forward. Don't give us a nudge and stop like Microsoft did.
David Lynch commented:
Wow! That is quite expensive! If NI wants adoption, they had better give away a basic version for free so that folks can kick the tires. I certainly like the idea of it, but it is only useful if world dog adopts it. That means garage tinkerers too.
KWAN commented:
Wow!!! Its great to hear about NI LabVIEW Robotics, Myself being a LabVIEW professional has many chance to have good opportunities to work with these technologies. Thanks NI for providing such good products.
