1. Building Intelligent Control Systems Using
Graphical System Design Software And FPGA
Based I/O
Thorsten Mayer
ni.com

2. National Instruments
What do we do: Leading provider of computer-
based measurement and automation
technology 2010 Revenue :
$873 million
Investment in R&D: 16% of annual revenue
Net Revenue in Millions
Customer base: 30,000 companies annually
Network: More than 600 Alliance Partners
Diversity: No industry makes up more than
15% of revenue
Corporate headquarters: Austin, Texas
Global operations: More than 5.000
employees in around 40 countries (more than
1000 in Central Eastern Europe)
ni.com

3. Market-Driven Eras of Virtual Instrumentation
Progression of Our Vision
Graphical
System
Design
Traditional PC-Based PXI Systems RIO Architecture
Instrument Data Acquisition & RF Systems
Control Real-Time
Technology
RF , MEMS, RF Design
Medical, Audio Medical
Laboratories Measurement Automated and Video Test Industrial
& Research Automation Test Industrial Big Physics
Measurement Embedded
and Control DSP Design
Robotics
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
ni.com

4. The National Instruments Vision Evolved
“To do for embedded what the PC did for the desktop.”
Graphical System Design
Virtual Instrumentation Embedded Systems
Instrumentation Real-Time Industrial Control
RF Measurements RT/FPGA Systems
Digital Embedded Monitoring Electronic Devices
Distributed Hardware-in-the-Loop C Code Generation
DESIGN PROTOTYPE DEPLOY
ni.com

5. Driving Forces in Industrial Control
“…shift from quantity to quality
manufacturing…”
“…increase safety…”
“…reduce energy consumption…”
“…do more with less…”
ni.com

6. Leveraging Latest Technology
Optical
Machine Vision Sensing
Deterministic
Networking
High Speed Data
Acquisition
Embedded
Technologies
Multicore
Wireless Technology
Communication
ni.com

7. Convergence of Technology
PC PLC
Custom Hardware
ni.com

8. Convergence of Technology
Programmable
Automation Controllers
PACs
ni.com

9. “The future.. is in the millions of niche markets at
the shallow end of the bitstream”
Chris Anderson
Vendor Defined
Solution
“The Long Tail”
i.e. plant automation system
User defined
Solutions
i.e. advanced control, machine monitoring,
vision inspection system
ni.com

10. Making Steel Recycling Cheaper and Cleaner
Application: Monitoring and advanced real-
time control of steel recycling process.
Challenge: Reduction of energy consumption
to meet state compliancy regulations
while increasing plant efficiency.
Solution: Graphical System Design
software (NI LabVIEW) and hardware (NI
CompactRIO) as rapid prototyping and
deployment platform for process
optimization and real-time control of
power consumption.
"By programming with LabVIEW and PACs versus programming with PLCs and ladder logic, we have
seen a ten-fold increase in efficiency and drastically reduced the costs of facility automation."
ni.com

11. Enabling Technologies
Measure It Control It
Modular COTS HW Wireless FPGA Deterministic
Architectures Systems Technology Communication
Complete Data Intelligent Advanced embedded Distributed deterministic
Acquisition, Distributed control systems communication
Instrumentation and Systems
Control Platforms
ni.com

12. FPGA Technology
Programmable
Interconnects
Logic
Blocks
I/O Blocks
ni.com

13. FPGA Technology
Highly Reliable
Massively parallel Programmable
Interconnects
Reconfigurable
Logic
Digital-signal processing
Blocks
High-speed control
Shorter time to market
I/O Blocks
ni.com

14. An Ideal Embedded Architecture
I/O
Processor FPGA I/O
I/O
• Floating-point • High-speed control & • Low-level access to
processing processing hardware
• Communications • Reconfigurable • Custom timing &
• Multicore technology hardware triggering
• Reliability • Modular I/O
ni.com

15. The Challenge
I/O
Processor FPGA I/O
I/O
• Multicore • Low-level tools • Custom drivers and
programming Verilog & VHDL middleware
challenge • Fixed-point
algorithms
• Custom digital • Custom timing for
interface/buses different types of I/O
ni.com

16. NI RIO Technology Platform
Enet USB RTOS Analysis IP Control IP Analog I/O Digital I/O
Analysis Multicore Timing IP Comm IP Comm I/O Motion I/O
Logging Comm IPNet 3rd party IP 3rd party I/O
Packaged Board-Level
ni.com

17. NI CompactRIO
Point-to-Point C Series
FPGA FPGA Data Links Parallel I/O
LabVIEW
Real-Time
Thread-Safe
Libraries
Multithreaded
RT OS
LabVIEW FPGA
Hardware and Rugged
-40 to 70 deg C Up to 14 I/O Slots
OEM Services Certifications/Ratings
ni.com

18. Industrial Measurements
 Accelerometer  Thermocouples
 Strain Gauge  Current (5 Arms)
 Load Cells  High Voltage (300 Vrms)
 Digital I/O  RTD
Motion Vision
GPRS GPS
ni.com

19. Keeping Hydroelectric Power Plants Safe
Industry: Energy, Power
Challenge: Machine monitoring and
control in Hydroelectric power
plants.
Solution: Graphical System Design
software (NI LabVIEW) and
hardware (NI CompactRIO) as
rapid prototyping and deployment
platform for process optimization
and real-time control of power
consumption.
" The continuous monitoring of vibrations and other signals is critical to predicting mechanical
behavior and efficiency and usually requires continuous data acquisition and in-line analysis.
VESKI, a Croatian-based consulting firm that specializes in vibration analysis and diagnostics,
relies on LabVIEW and CompactRIO as the core of its CoDiS monitoring software. "
ni.com

20. Laboratory To Market Deployment Curve
I/O
I/O
PXI RIO
System Flexibility and Price
I/O
PCI RIO Processor FPGA
Custom I/O
CompactRIO
Modular
CompactRIO
Integrated NI Single-Board
RIO
Number of Systems Deployed
ni.com

21. Automation of Industrial Washing Machine Lines
Industry: Consumer Goods, Industrial
Controls/ Devices/ Systems
Challenge: Developing a reliable,
automated industrial washing machine
line control system that offers easy
supervision and alarm monitoring in
real time.
Solution: Using NI CompactRIO hardware
and LabVIEW software to build an
advanced real-time control and
monitoring system that is fully
automated, and highly reliable.
" Using NI technologies, we developed an advanced, fully automated industrial washing machine
line that is easy to use and maintain. The CompactRIO platform combined with the power of
LabVIEW helped us rapidly solve complex challenges more easily than we could have using
other products on the market.. "
ni.com

22. Graphical System Design Software
Data Flow C Code Textual Math Simulation Statechart
Graphical System Design Platform
Desktop Real-Time FPGA Microprocessors
ni.com

23. Graphical System Design Software
Data Flow C Code Textual Math Simulation Statechart
Graphical System Design Platform
Desktop Real-Time FPGA Microprocessors
ni.com

24. LabVIEW FPGA Code Abstraction
Counter Analog I/O I/O with DMA
LabVIEW FPGA VHDL
ni.com

25. LabVIEW FPGA Code Abstraction
Counter Analog I/O I/O with DMA
LabVIEW FPGA VHDL
ni.com

26. LabVIEW FPGA Code Abstraction
Counter Analog I/O I/O with DMA
LabVIEW FPGA VHDL
ni.com

27. Solving Real-Time Control Challenges
With Large Channel Counts Or
Widespread Floor Space.
ni.com

28. ESO - ELT – Primary Mirror (M1) Control
A “Big” Distributed Control Challenge
M1 984 MIRRORS
3,000 ACTUATORS
6,000 SENSORS
3k x 6k MATRIX
1 MILLISECOND
video
ni.com

29. EtherCAT is a high-performance, deterministic,
industrial network based on Ethernet.
ni.com

30. EtherCAT Protocol Basics
EtherCAT Telegram
TCP/UDP TCP/UDP
EtherCAT
Header Data EtherCAT Data WC
Header
IP
IP Data
Header
Ethernet
Ethernet Data (up to 1,498 bytes) CRC
Header
ni.com

31. The “EtherCAT Train”
• Ethernet frame is a moving train
• EtherCAT telegrams are the train cars
• Bits of data are people in the cars,
extracted or inserted by appropriate slaves
Master
Slave Slave Slave
ni.com

32. Timing and Synchronization
• Each frame contains a special
synchronization telegram
• Timing Diagram
Program I/O Program
Master
Scan Scan Scan
Slave I/O Slave
Slave
Update Scan Update
Source: http://www.ethercat.org
ni.com

33. NI 9144 Expansion Chassis
Programmable
2 Ports for FPGA Chip
Daisy-Chaining
Rugged Chassis
• -40 to 70°C 8 Slots for C
• 9-30V Input Series I/O
• Hazloc Modules
• Shock/Vibe
ni.com

34. NI RIO System with Deterministic Distributed I/O
Host Computer Industrial
CompactRIO PXI RT Desktop
Controller
(TCP/IP)
Real-time Master Controller
(EtherCAT)
NI 9144 Expansion Chassis
ni.com

35. Another “Big” Distributed Control Challenge
Controlling The world’s most powerful
particle accelerator, the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) at CERN:
• More than 100 collimators: “…a device that narrows
a beam of particles or waves” [3], to “protect the
LHC from uncontrolled particle losses, and absorb
energetic particles out of the nominal beam core
and to reduce noise to the LHC experiments”. [4]
• More than 600 stepper motors
27 km • Precise synchronization (ms) between collimators
along the 27 km circle.
• Motion control with accuracy of 20 µm
ni.com

36. “The future is already here,
it is just unevenly distributed.”
William Gibson
ni.com