National Instruments Pilot Program

[Danny Diaz]

By now teams should have received an e-mail blast announcing the National Instruments Pilot Program. The pilot program will represent a unique opportunity to use and incorporate National Instruments NI-DAQ hardware in the design, prototype, test, and validation phases of the US-FIRST build. Teams that are accepted through the application process will receive a National Instruments USB-DAQ 6009 device to be used with LabVIEW 8.0 Student Edition. This device can interface with most sensors to perform measurement and data logging and also to generate signals very similar to those produced by sensors (do you see where this is going?).

The National Instruments Pilot Program application process requires you to answer some standard questions but it also asks you to describe how you plan on using the National Instruments hardware in your build season this year. Since the application is in a "survey" style format, I thought it useful to list out the questions you'll need to answer so that you will have a chance to think about them before attempting to fill out the application. Here they are:

1. Team Contact Information (Coaches name, shipping address, etc...)
2. What regional competition(s) does your team plan to attend this year?
3. How many years has your team participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition?
4. How many members are on your FIRST Robotics Competition team?
5. Will you commit to participate in an online discussion forum throughout the pilot to share feedback with other FIRST Robotics Competition teams, as well as participate in a post-pilot survey?
6. Are you or someone on your team (including students, mentors, and coaches) familiar with NI LabVIEW?
7. Please elaborate on your familiarity with LabVIEW.
8. Are you or someone on your team (including students, mentors, and coaches) familiar with data acquisition technology?
9. Please elaborate on your familiarity with data acquisition.
10. Please explain how team resources will be dedicated to learning and implementing NI technology.
11. Please explain how your team plans to incorporate NI technology into the 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition build season.

All of these questions are important, but the last two questions are the "deal breaker" questions. Please put some extra effort into answering these questions - talk to your teammates, talk to your mentors, think hard about your build season and ways you can realistically improve it; if National Instruments hardware can help in these areas, be sure to let us know!

-Danny