[rjmah]

My experience is with real time OS's, PLC's, robot steppers/servos and going to Labview seminars tells me this:

It will be much easier for the average team to use Labview. It's graphical based and easier to learn and make small changes to default code. C++ is for those teams with extensive programming depth. Wind River is a professional IDE for real time control and will be a steeper learning curve.

The trick to Labview programming is to think about signal flows. The origins of Labview was remote control of professional instruments like scopes and signal generators. It grew into Labview being the instrument. If you grab an analog electronic design person they will find Labview intuitive, as each block is like adding another op amp circuit, integrator, comparators, etc.

Where Labview will excel is feedback control, like encoders controlling motors and speeds. I assume there will be stepper motors in this year kit, in addition to the DC motors. It has PID blocks. Analog signal processing, such as controlled ramp up and ramp down will be a snap. Dick Morley the inventor of the PLC is a big advocate of "stateless" PLC programming. Control programming at it's simplest requires an output fires/ramps/runs based on a input conditions button/sensors/alarms/limits. To try to make a state program in Labview (procedural steps) is against the natural flow of it.