Use Motion Control on Any Platform with NI SoftMotion Technology

Whether you're designing a packaging line for the beverage industry or a lithography machine for the semiconductor industry, you want flexibility in selecting your own platform for the control system. Motion is often the critical element of such a system-whether a PC or a programmable automation controller (PAC), the next-generation PLC-and it dictates your choice of platform. Machine builders and OEMs can use NI SoftMotion to create custom motion controllers by using NI LabVIEW on any platform. Based on your performance requirements, you now can have multiaxis coordinated motion on a variety of platforms from NI plug-in M Series data acquisition modules for industrial PCs and PXI to rugged systems using NI CompactRIO and Compact FieldPoint PACs.

The NI SoftMotion Development Module for LabVIEW includes functions for trajectory generation, spline interpolation, position and velocity PID control, and encoder implementation for fast and easy development. The trajectory generator is a 64-bit engine that supports unlimited axes of coordinated motion with linear and circular interpolation, including contouring moves. The spline interpolation function uses coefficients created by the trajectory generator to develop interpolated points. The control loop is an enhanced PID algorithm that supports dual feedback, position, and velocity loops. The spline interpolation functions, position and velocity control loop, encoder implementation, and interaction with analog and digital I/O executes on an FPGA using reconfigurable I/O technology while the trajectory generator executes in a real-time environment with LabVIEW Real-Time. You can achieve servo update rates as fast as 5 musec or 200 kHz enabling high-precision, coordinated multiaxis motion control. The NI SoftMotion development module includes examples for different hardware targets from simple applications, such as a single-axis straight-line move, to more complex applications, such as multiple-axis contoured moves.

With control loop rates as low as 5 musec, Compact RIO and R Series reconfigurable I/O hardware offer the highest degree of customization and performance with the NI SoftMotion development module. You can use plug-in data acquisition modules, such as the M Series, that offer analog output lines and direct input from quadrature encoders for applications requiring loop rates of 1 msec, such as packaging and material handling. Compact FieldPoint offers lower loop rates of 10 msec, and is suited for simple motion control applications, such as servo hydraulics, conveyors, or systems with high inertia.

The NI SoftMotion development module is designed for the experienced motion control engineer developing machine control systems or for the scientist researching complex control design algorithms. When considering the NI SoftMotion development module, you should also study the advantages of using a plug-in NI PCI-73xx motion control board that you can program easily by using automatic LabVIEW code generation with NI Motion Assistant.

The NI SoftMotion Development Module for LabVIEW changes the way machine builders and OEMs incorporate motion control in their systems. To learn more about your motion control options, visit ni.com/motion.

CompactRIO, FieldPoint, LabVIEW, NI Motion Assistant, and NI-SoftMotion are trademarks of National Instruments.