NIWeek: New high-performance servo drives, motors, use Ethernet

New products provide distributed motion solutions with EtherCAT technology and the NI LabVIEW 2010 NI SoftMotion Module. The products are designed so engineers and scientists can more easily build scalable, distributed motion control systems. They are said simplify setup and configuration for deploying custom motion applications to any NI real-time controller supporting NI EtherCAT technology, including NI CompactRIO, PXI real-time controllers and NI industrial controllers,

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National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today at its NIWeek conference and show announced new AKD Servo Drives and AKM Servo Motors, designed so engineers and scientists can more easily build scalable, distributed motion control systems. The new products simplify setup and configuration for deploying custom motion applications to any NI real-time controller supporting NI EtherCAT technology, including NI CompactRIO, PXI real-time controllers and NI industrial controllers, the company said.

National Instruments also is releasing the NI LabVIEW 2010 NI SoftMotion Module that provides support for NI EtherCAT drives for simplified motion application development.

The new AKM brushless servo motors are said to provide superior dynamic performance in four different frame sizes, with high torque, density and speed ranges. The motors use low-inertia rotors and feature low-cog, low-harmonic distortion magnetic design. The motors also are perfectly matched with NI servo drives and provide plug-and-play configuration with integrated Smart Feedback Device (SFD) technology and simplified cabling.

The new AKD Servo Drives feature simplified setup and configuration through EtherCAT technology and integration with the LabVIEW project, a feature in LabVIEW software that engineers use to group LabVIEW and third-party files, create build specifications for executables, and deploy or download files to hardware targets. The new drives update torque loops in 0.67 μs, and velocity and position loops at 62.5 μs and 125 μs. Applications include basic torque-and-velocity applications to indexing to multi-axis programmable motion, using graphical system design.

The LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module delivers graphical development for custom motion control applications, to configure motion axis settings, test configuration, tune motors and quickly develop a custom motion application. The module features an updated interactive configuration and a high-level function block API for increased ease of use. It makes the execution of motion applications on a Windows-based system possible. In addition, the new module easily connects to the new drives and motors as well as third-party drives and motors using NI C Series drive interface hardware.

Learn more at www.ni.com/motion. See also the NI Motion Control Bundle on www.ni.com to quickly and easily assemble a full motion control system.

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- Edited by Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com.