Is it possible to control a 5 axis robot using fieldpoint and flexmotion?

[Bendik]

Hi!

We are a group of norwegian technical students working on buildig a motion controller for an old 5-axis Mitsubishi RV-M1 robot.

We plan to use Fieldpoint with encoder inputs, analog out and digital in for communicating with the robot.

Is it possible to use the flexmotion package (included in the LabVIEW Pro version) to communicate with Fieldpoint?

We have seen that the motion SubVI's in flexmotion contain a "Board ID" input and similar output. This link is probably pointing at the NI PCI-73xx -series hardware boards to be put inside the computer. But is it possible to call the Fieldpoint module as a "Board ID" in?

If not, do you know of any other ways of doing this? We do not have the big amount a money available, is it other ways of doing this, where we don't have to buy very expensive programming equipment?

Thank's for reading!

Regards, Bendik

[Jochen]

Bendik,

you are right, the NI-Motion (flexMotion) functions will only work for NI PCI-73xx boards. In fact the PCI-7356 would be the best choice for your application as it can control up to 6 servo- or stepper-axes.
FieldPoint is a good choice for industrial monitoring and slow industrial control applications but it won't do a good job controlling motors. A fast compact FieldPoint controller like the cFP-2120 probably could provide the necessary loop rates but the overall system cost will be much higher than the price fo a PCI-7356. Additionally you can program the PCI-7356 with any software package that can call DLLs so there are no additional software cost for this solution.

Best regards,

Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany

[Chazzzmd]

Greetings,

I'm currently mirroring an existing system I have. The only difference would be the addition of 2 axis (total of 5). I have read this thread abou the PCI-73xx controller. My question would be about the multi-axis power amplifier interface. Currently I'm running a nuDrive 4SX-411 on my 3 axis system. But this device only supports 4 axis. The only ones I have seen go up to 4. Does anyone have any suggestions on manufacturers or models? Researching it on the internet isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

Thanks in advance,

Chazzzmd

[Jochen]

Chazzmd,

NI provides a product advisor for motion control. You will find controllers, motors and drives from NI and other vendors there, that can be easily integrated in NI motion control solutions.

Kind regards,

Jochen Klier
National Instruments

[Vivek_N]

Hello Chazzzmd,

There is a list of third-party motor drives available on our website. Here is a link to this webpage: http://volt.ni.com/niwc/motion/drive_advisor.jsp. As mentioned here, the motor drive by Primatics can control upto 8 axes.

I hope this helps.