National Instruments Simplifies Advanced Motion Control

Aug. 10, 2009 – National Instruments has announced the new LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module, which simplifies the development of advanced single- and multi-axis motion applications, and new NI C Series modules, which expand the connectivity of the NI CompactRIO programmable automation controller (PAC) platform to hundreds of servo and stepper drives from NI and third-party vendors. These two additions to the NI family of motion products combine the ease of use and I/O capabilities of NI LabVIEW graphical programming with the customisation and synchronisation benefits of field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based CompactRIO hardware to deliver an ideal platform for developing advanced motion applications.

LabVIEW NI SoftMotion offers the convenience of programming motion profiles with a high-level, function block API based on the Motion Control Library defined by PLCopen. It includes function blocks for straight line, arc and contoured move types as well as function blocks for advanced operations such as electronic gearing and camming. The module also features advanced functions for designing custom motion applications including trajectory generation, spline interpolation, position and velocity control and encoder implementation. Because the module is an extension of LabVIEW, engineers and scientists can easily synchronise their motion applications with I/O and measurements in a single development environment.