Rick Green 200

NI touts applications from turf to aerospace

Nov. 19, 2015

Following an opening keynote address at NIDays Boston on Tuesday, Rahul Gadkari, NI principle regional marketing manager, U.S. East, with the help of colleagues, described several recently introduced NI products and some applications they serve.

He first cited a 14-slot CompactDAQ USB 3.0 chassis that can transfer measurement and sensor data at up to 225 MB/s data-transfer rates. With such products, companies can acquire impressive amounts of data, but unfortunately, they analyze only 5% of the critical data they are capturing, Gadkari said, creating a need smarter measurement systems with more processing capability at the point of acquisition.

Companies analyze only 5% of data critical data they are capturing, Gadkari said, and need smarter measurement systems with more processing capability at the point of acquisition.

Tommy Glicker, product marketing manager for DAQ at NI, then described how the powertrain controller R&D group at Jaguar Land Rover captured 500 GB of data per day from multiple tools. Unfortunately, the group could only analyze 10% of that data. A one-year initiative incorporating NI DIAdem and NI DataFinder Server Edition helped the group analyze 95% of its data and avoid repeating tests—thereby saving costs.

And speaking at NIWeek last August in Austin, Pablo Abad, powertrain simulation and tools research leader at Jaguar Land Rover, reported that the previous had not only limited the amount of data analyzed but had been about 20 times slower than the newly developed automated approach. The group can perform calculations on and search for specific parameters—highest speeds, for example—as well as accompanying metadata.

Gadkari then highlighted additional applications. Berlin Heart Germany, for example, specializes life-sustaining cardiac technology, including the Excor pediatric ventricular assist system, used for children awaiting a heart transplant. The company uses LabVIEW and CompactDAQ hardware based on an Intel Atom quad-core processor to simulate the human heart during tests.

Gadkari and colleagues then highlighted additional applications:

  • Embraer used NI hardware and software for increased use of simulated ground testing to shorten time to market.
  • Cirrus Logic uses the Semiconductor Test System (STS) and has found it is cheaper to buy an STS than rent a traditional big-iron ATE system.
  • Harman uses the Wireless Test System to test its cellular eCall technology, which enables a vehicle in an accident to automatically call first responders—cutting emergency response times by up to 50%.
  • Innovari is working to reduce peak loads on the grid to better utilize existing infrastructure, using products such as Single Board RIO.
  • Diagnostic Sonar is using a FlexRIO controller to help detect damage in advanced composite materials.
  • FireFly is using CompactRIO to boost the productivity of its turf harvester.
  • Samsung is using NI products to conduct MIMO 5G field tests in Dallas.

The NIDays presentations were abbreviated versions of presentations from last August’s NIWeek in Austin, all of which can be viewed here.

About the Author

Rick Nelson | Contributing Editor

Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.

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