Extending LabVIEW Aptitude for Distributed Controls and Data Acquisition
L. Catàni · InTech eBooks · 2011
LabVIEW is probably the most comprehensive environment for setting up a control/data acquisition system (CS) for a scientific/laboratory experiment. It provides ready to use solutions for both control and data acquisition for a large number of equipments and for the analysis of various types of data. In the scientific environment, especially, these features are particularly useful because CS are frequently developed and managed by scientists willing to spend more time in operating their experimental apparatuses than in maintaining software for controlling components and reading instruments outputs. In a scientific laboratory, or a medium/small experimental apparatus, typical selection of equipments is unavoidably heterogeneous: scopes, digital I/Os, motors, digital cameras and, quite often, a mixture of new and relatively old technologies for connecting devices to the computer managing the system. Moreover, CS for scientific experiments are quite often far from being developed once forever; instead they are continuously updated by replacing and/or introducing new components in order to follow the evolution of the apparatus. LabVIEW easy to learn graphic programming and its large number of instrument drivers and libraries for data analysis and graphical display, successfully fulfill the above requirements. When the scientific apparatus became larger and more complex a single computer may not be sufficient for the management of all the components. Additionally, in some environment the equipments need to be operated from remote or it might be preferable to separate data acquisition from on-line analysis in order to optimize the performances of both. In other word the single computer CS needs to be upgraded to implement a distributed control system (DCS). LabVIEW provides quite a number of solutions also for the development of DCS by offering tools for remote control of Virtual Instruments (VI) and sharing of data across the network by means of dedicated LabVIEW components that allow communicating with remote computers and devices. Developers can easily find ready to use solutions for their needs among these resources although, in some cases, they might either lack in flexibility or cannot offer the required compatibility with all the software components of the DCS. In these situations a communication solution for the DCS should be necessarily based on the widely accepted standard protocols ensuring highest compatibility. 19