Configuring a Material Handling System with National Instruments Products

One of the most important systems in a distribution center is the material handling system for classifying, ordering, sorting and transporting units. Depending on the complexity of the handling system, units may need to be simply transferred from one location to another but applications can vary to be more complex. Example applications can include monitoring integrity of units to see if the package or unit has been damaged, sorting units depending on shape, size or even barcode value, realigning units to be handled further down the material handling line and even removing units from handling system altogether. Because of these numerous possibilities and the varied levels of complexity required by a material handling system, a flexible solution is essential. NI’s control platform solves this challenge by providing a comprehensive family of control and monitoring products while offering an unparalleled degree of flexibility and ease of use.

A Typical Material Handling System

Typical systems in material handling include a vision system, belt drives as well as system specific sensors and actuators depending on system needs. Sensors include photo-sensors, pressure transducers, pneumatic-controlled rollers as well as handling robots. The vision system is chiefly responsible for unit identification and inspection but can be used to determine other information such as alignment. The belt drives are critical since they are responsible for the primary movement and transport of units in the distribution center including motion on the main belt itself. Sensors can be used to determine position along the belt and other information including size and weight. There are also invariably other actuators and pneumatics used to control sorting, picking and placing of units.


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Benefits of National Instruments Control System with Integrated Data Acquisition, Vision and Motion

· Tight integration between data acquisition, real-time controllers, vision system and motion controllers
· Shorter time to deployment with LabVIEW
· Scalable to future requirements
· Easily integrates with existing control systems and software

Software

Package	Description
NI Developer Suite LabVIEW Professional Control Edition	With LabVIEW, you can rapidly create automation applications using intuitive graphical development. LabVIEW integrates measurements, vision, and motion into one platform. The Professional Control Edition includes the LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW Data Logging and Supervisory Control modules.
LabVIEW Real-Time	LabVIEW Real-Time and RT Series hardware deliver deterministic, real-time control needed for machine monitoring and test systems. You can choose LabVIEW RT Series hardware targets based on PXI and FieldPoint depending on the performance and I/O requirements of your industrial machine monitoring and control system.
LabVIEW Data Logging and Supervisory Control	LabVIEW Data Logging and Supervisory Control offers data management tools, such as easy-to-use I/O configuration for large-channel-count applications, automatic data logging, full alarm management and event logging, and real-time and historical trending. With easy networking, including a networked database for distributed logging, built-in security, and OLE for process control (OPC) connectivity, the LabVIEW Data Logging and Supervisory Control Module provides tremendous ease of use to get your high-channel-count system up and running quickly

See Also:
Learn about LabVIEW
Learn about LabVIEW Data Logging and Supervisory Control
Learn about LabVIEW Real-Time

PCI based Configuration

Function	Signal	Solution	Product
Vision Monitoring System	Image	Image Acquisition Board	NI PCI-1422 (777959-02)
Belt Drives	N/A	Motion Controller / Motor Drive	NI PCI-7344 (777934-01)
Photo-Sensors	Digital	Digital Input Board	NI PCI-6515 (778835-01)
Pressure-Transducer	Analog	DAQ board w/ Signal Conditioning	NI PCI-6052E (777745-01)

PXI based Configuration

Function	Signal	Solution	Product
Vision Monitoring System	Image	Image Acquisition Board	NI PXI-1422 (777933-02)
Belt Drives	N/A	Motion Controller / Motor Drive	NI PXI-7344 (777935-01)
Photo-Sensors	Digital	Digital Input Board (need signal conditioning)	NI PXI-6508 (777598-01)
Pressure-Transducer	Analog	DAQ board w/ Signal Conditioning	NI PCI-6052E (777745-01)

Compact FieldPoint based Configuration

Function	Signal	Solution	Product
Photo-Sensors	Digital	Digital Input Module	NI cFP-DI-301 (777318-301)
Pressure-Transducer	Analog	Analog Input Module	NI cFP-AI-110 (777318-110)

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