What is LabVIEW

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by texasdiaz

SNIP
The DAQ device should be looked at very much like a steroid-infused IFI controller that instead of controlling via a program you upload to it you control it via the USB interface with a PC or LabVIEW-capable device. The DAQ device, in conjunction with LabVIEW, gives you the ability to analyze sensors, tweak PID control loops, simulate sensors, and perform advanced analysis and control tasks not currently supported by available tools (among a myriad of others). With what you learn with the DAQ device, as Don put it, you will be able to more intelligently tweak/control your robot through conventional means for competition.

EXACTLY! For other examples, strain gauges can help prevent structural integrity or really nasty torsion problems, current sensors (and other sensors) can help determine how much power your motors are pulling so you can design a drive train or arm mechanism that won't smoke your motors and give you maximum efficiency, and you can even develop a testing environment within LabVIEW to allow you to unit test your autonomous robot software without the need for a completed physical robot!
-Danny

Wow lot's of good discussion here The testing and development of code has always been hindered by the progress of the robot build team. This sounds great. Can you provide a bit more insight into how the DAQ device is going to interface with the RC? Your comments almost suggest that the DAQ can be used to replace the IFI controller during development. My sense is that the DAQ is external to that but I am foggy on how one will watch the code while observing data flow. Maybe the point is that one really wants to just watch the data flow. My fingers are itching to get a hold of this device and plug it into last year's robot.