Why Lord Kelvin would have loved LabVIEW
October 1st 2009

LabVIEW has the ability to measure and improve enginering tasks.Graham Green, technical marketing engineer, National Instruments UK explains

The need for test and measurement in industrial applications is as crucial today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago, when Lord Kelvin, the eminent scientist, engineer and namesake for units of temperature stated 'If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it'. Since those bright young days of engineering, the beards and white lab coats have (for the most part) died away, but the ingenuity and insight present in engineering minds is still very much alive. The recent release of National Instruments LabVIEW 2009 is the latest step in over 20 years of development in a graphical programming language to make both 'Measure it' and 'Improve it' an accessible reality to the engineers and scientists of today.

The complexity of industrial applications is increasing every year.Measurements that must be taken to understand the operation of a system are often at higher speed and invariably need complicated analysis functions to be performed on them before data can be presented and interpreted. The 'improve it' half of Kelvin's observation is no trivial task either.Hardware response time and strict determinism keep industrial engineers striving for the cutting edge of embedded technology.

These challenges are heightened by the economic need to create more powerful systems in less time, using a smaller team to do the same amount of work. Engineers are turning to advanced high-level tools to combat these pressures and do more, turning their hands to all stages of the design, prototyping and deployment of a project.

One such high level tool is NI LabVIEW. LabVIEW is a graphical programming language designed specifically for scientists and engineers.

A data-flow language with similar logic to a flow chart, it enables a user without a background in software development to rapidly develop and deploy complex systems.

LabVIEW code can be compiled to run on multiple platforms including desktop PCs, real-time operating systems and even embedded targets such as FPGAs and ARM or Blackfin microprocessors. By using high level software to define the functionality of commercialoff- the shelf (COTS) hardware, flexible and custom projects can be realised in a much shorter timescale then previously possible.

An engineer can do more, singlehandedly completing the work of a team of specialised engineers using a fragmented tool chain.

LabVIEW 2009 is a platform-wide software update, with new features for improving user productivity and enhancing computational performance. LabVIEW 2009 offers a number of general language improvements for building applications, such as data references, native recursion, and improved object-oriented programming structures.Highlights of the many new features available in this release are advances in aiding multicore development and new embedded deployment options for constructing wireless sensor networks.

With the rise of multicore in the mainstream market, the graphical nature of the LabVIEW software environment has proven to be powerful and intuitive for representing parallel programs. In LabVIEW 2009, the new parallel for loop can automatically split iterations of a loop across multiple cores. Called 'loop unrolling,' LabVIEW takes care of splitting and reinterpreting data inputs and outputs. For example, a 100-iteration algorithm can be split such that 50 iterations run on each core of a dual-core machine. Further parallel performance can be realised by using the LabVIEW 2009 FPGA Module. By taking advantage of the parallel nature of LabVIEW to directly target Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs, hardware reliability and performance can be brought to a reconfigurable software-designed system.With new development and debugging tools, LabVIEW 2009 adds the functionality that experienced FPGA programmers expect, without sacrificing the LabVIEW graphical programming experience, so you can easily tune and iterate on your design.

Wireless data acquisition (DAQ) devices from National Instruments provide more flexibility and lower costs than traditional wired systems.Without being locked into a fixed network or system setup, and without having to run cables within a plant, you need less time to install and maintain equipment.

LabVIEW 2009 introduces a wireless sensor network (WSN) platform, a complete remote monitoring solution that consists of LabVIEW and new reliable, low-power wireless measurement nodes. You can use these nodes, programmed with LabVIEW, in applications for remote, environmental and resource monitoring.While the measurement nodes are optimised for low-power,multiyear deployment with limited computing resources, LabVIEW helps you customise the behaviour of each node using the LabVIEW WSN Module Pioneer. Now, you can extend node battery life, perform custom analysis and reduce response time with embedded decision making through intuitive graphical programming. Traditionally, achieving these benefits has required expertise in embedded OSs and low-level event-based programming.

Lord Kelvin would still recognise the engineering ethos today, as striving to measure and improve the world around us.

The existence of tools to enable this, both now and looking to the future is essential.

With this in mind, NI has invested heavily in LabVIEW R&D for over 20 years, propelling LabVIEW to its current position at the forefront of measurement and embedded technology. Through a strategy of continual investment an annual release schedule has been adopted, allowing LabVIEW to add new features in a controlled and stable way, responding more quickly to user feedback. If Lord Kelvin were still measuring and improving things today, LabVIEW would almost certainly be a tool he would use.

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