I'm using the NI Motion Controller to operate stepper motors on three separate axes. Somewhat unique to my application is that all of these axes are not perpendicular, which is what a lot of the NI examples assume. Axes one and two on the UMI are indpendently controlling two separate objects on the same physical axis. Axis 3 (on the UMI) is controlling a single motor that moves the first axis laterally.
As the program is set up now, I have a FOR loop operating the motion of these three motors. To accomplish this, I read in an array of axis positions from a text file (3 columns, nrows) and break each column into a 1D array of positions for each axis. The FOR loop steps through these positions until the end of motion is complete.
What I need to do is speed up the positioning of the motors. After each iteration of the FOR loop, there is a brief pause in the motion which can add up to a substantial time loss. I'm not sure if what I need to do is blend the motion on these axes or contour the motion of the motors. Essentially, I want to keep the motors from stopping all together and have smooth and continuous motion.
