Building an NI Motion Control System

Publish Date: Nov 27, 2013

Overview
National Instruments offers motion control solutions for a variety of applications, ranging from simple single-axis control to distributed synchronized multi-axis control. This document provides a
guide to NIs Motion Control platform and offers some suggestions on selecting the right hardware setup for your application.

Table of Contents
1. Note
2. Motion System Components
3. Distributed Motion control using EtherCAT communication
4. NI 9148 Expansion Chassis and C Series Drive Interface
5. CompactRIO Based Systems
6. NI SingleBoard RIO
7. PCI or PXI Plug-In Boards
8. Conclusion

1. Note
This document compares different implementations of a fully featured motion control system and assumes prior knowledge of a motion control system architecture and the various components that
make it up, such as a real-time operating system and an FPGA.
For an introduction to motion system components and control concepts discussed below, see What is Motion Control? and the NI Motion Control Technical Library.
For an introduction to the RIO architecture (underlying real-time operating system and FPGA concepts) see What is RIO Technology? And Creating Custom Motion Control and Drive Electronics
with an FPGA-Based COTS System

2. Motion System Components

A motion system is comprised of multiple components that interact to implement the various tasks necessary to perform motion control.

Figure 1. Motion Control System Architecture

Depending on the complexity of the application, some of these tasks require more or less sophistication. NI SoftMotion modularizes these tasks so they can be implemented on different
components of the system depending on the application requirements and system hardware.

Figure 2. NI SoftMotion Architecture

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Figure 2. NI SoftMotion Architecture

The result is a flexible motion control system that abstracts much of the above architecture, yet lets you dive in to customize various pieces as needed while still interacting with the others high
level components. See NI SoftMotion for further benefits of this implementation.
The flexibility of NI SoftMotion, combined with the NI Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, allows for many different system configurations. This document summarizes the different ways you can
build an NI Motion Control System, and how each system implements the motion control architecture shown above.

3. Distributed Motion control using EtherCAT communication

Figure 3. EtherCAT Drive based Motion Control System

An NI Real-Time controller combined with an AKD EtherCAT drive is the simplest option both in terms of cabling and configuration, and is the highest performance NI Drive/Motor combination.
The real-time controller can be any NI Real-Time controller capable of acting as an EtherCAT Master (NI CompactRIO, PXI RT, NI Industrial controller, or Embedded Vision System), and runs the
users code and the NI Softmotion Engine. The controller is connected over the EtherCAT bus (uses standard CAT 5 cable just like an Ethernet network) to the AKD drive, which handles the
interpolation of command signals, control loops, motion I/O such as limit, home, and emergency stop switches, and motor control signal generation.
Some of the advantages of this system setup include easy expansion and implicit synchronization. To add additional axis to the system, drives are daisychained as shown in the above figure. And
because the system uses an EtherCAT bus, each additional drive added is automatically synchronized to the other components in the system.
LabVIEW and the LabVIEW NI SoftMotion module seamlessly support the NI AKD EtherCAT drives by offering complete project configuration. This allows customers to set up, configure, and
validate a complete motion system from the LabVIEW project and develop their custom motion application using the NI SoftMotion API.

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Figure 4. Motion Project Configuration and NI Softmotion API.

National Instruments also offers support for 3rd party EtherCAT drives through the axis interface, which requires the implementation of custom communication from the customer. Several example
implementations are available through the NI Website.

4. NI 9148 Expansion Chassis and C Series Drive Interface

Figure 5. NI 9148 Ethernet Expansion Chassis based systsem

For simple automated motion tasks you can execute a NI SoftMotion based application with a Windows based host PC connected to the new NI 9148 Ethernet RIO Expansion Chassis and a C
Series drive Interface module. Using this approach, the NI SoftMotion engine is deployed on the NI 9148 to assure reliable execution of the motion control application, and so that users dont have
to realize a real-time application. The user application will be executed on the Windows based host PC, sending the position commands directly to the C Series Drive Interface modules using the
RIO Scan Engine. This implementation offers the ease-of-use of programming a Windows based application and provides reliable motion control for closing the position control loops on dedicated
hardware inside the C Series module.
The drive interface module can connected to any compatible 3 rd party drive, and the 9148 can implement up to 8 axis of motion (1 axis per drive interface module). The big advantages of this
hardware configuration are the ability to program a Windows based application while retaining reliable deterministic execution of your motion control application, as well as the ability to add any of
over 100 NI and 3rd party C Series Modules to easily integrate other types of I/O into a motion application.

5. CompactRIO Based Systems

For applications that require tighter determinism or which operate autonomously, users can switch to a CompactRIO Real-Time system by simply deploying their application to a Real-Time
controller instead of to a NI 9148 RIO Expansion Chassis.
Depending on the power requirements of the motors and the level of control loop access the application requires, customers can choose between C Series Drive Interface modules, which connect
the NI CompactRIO system with an external drive, or C Series Drives which include power electronics to directly connect to lower power stepper or servo motors. There is also a 3 rd option called
the axis interface that enables customization of the FPGA control implementation and use of standard NI I/O modules.

1.

C Series Drive Interface Modules

Figure 6. cRIO and C Series Drive Interface System

NI 951x C Series drive interface modules for NI CompactRIO offer direct connectivity to hundreds of stepper and servo drives. These motion modules provide servo or stepper drive interface
signals for a single axis to connect the CompactRIO system to an external drive. In addition, they offer a full set of motion I/O including inputs for a home switch and limit switches, incremental
encoder inputs for position feedback, and digital input and digital output lines. The NI 951x drive interfaces include a processor to run the spline interpolation engine and the patented NI step
generation algorithm.
This system setup is best for interfacing to existing 3 rd party drive and motor hardware in a system, and offers the same C Series expansion options with other types of I/O as mentioned above.
National Instruments offers direct connectivity cables from the C Series drive interface modules to the external stepper drives (P7000) and servo drives (AKD) also available from National
Instruments. For connectivity to third party drives different cable and connector block bundles are available. Visit [ link here] for more information about the C Series Drive Interface Modules, and
which one would best suit your application.

2.

C Series Drives

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Fig. 7 cRIO and C Series Drive based System

For motors up to the power of around 100W National Instruments offers C Series drive modules which can directly provide the required current to the motor coils. In this case no external drive is
required and all of the control algorithms are implemented within the FPGA.
This system offers the advantage of integrating the drive directly into the cRIO chassis, eliminating another piece of hardware and lots of additional cabling.

3.

Axis Interface

Figure 8. A system utilizing the Axis Interface to create a custom control loop using standard NI C Series Modules
Besides the autonomous execution of your control application, the deployment to a real-time CompactRIO system offers additional customization. If your application requires specialty feedback or
advanced control algorithms for the position control loop you can move this part of the algorithm in the FPGA off the CompactRIO backplane and use LabVIEW FPGA programming to customize
or replace the algorithms with your own implementation. This also allows you to use Standard I/O modules from NI or 3rd party vendors instead of the C Series motion modules to connect to
specialty encoders like EnDAT encoders or resolvers, or to implement applications with more than 8 axis using high-channel count input and output modules. This implementation requires
additional LabVIEW Modules like LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW FPGA.

6. NI SingleBoard RIO

Figure 9. NI Singleboard RIO based system

If you are looking for a small footprint and plan to deploy your control system in larger quantities you can implement the same motion control system on the NI SingleBoard RIO, an unpackaged
version of the NI CompactRIO system. This platform requires custom packaging and will leave certification and the implementation of safety features up to the customer, but provide a more
cost-effective solution for larger deployment quantities. Most of the NI C Series modules, including the motion drive and drive interface modules, are also available as board only versions.

7. PCI or PXI Plug-In Boards

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Figure 10. PCI and PXI based motion control systems

Finally, National Instruments offers plug-in PCI and PXI motion control boards. These controllers contain onboard DSP and FPGA chips that allow them handle most of the tasks in a motion control
system. The Universal Motion Interface (UMI) can be used to connect to 3 rd party stepper and servo drives, or you can connect to National Instruments MID servo or stepper drives directly. Plug-in
motion boards are great for adding motion control to an existing desktop or PXI system.

8. Conclusion
National Instruments offers motion control solutions for a variety of applications, ranging from simple single-axis control to distributed synchronized multi-axis control.

Figure 11. NI Motion System Options: Each system contains multiple components, but is titled by its defining feature.
NI SoftMotion, combined with the NI Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, is the foundation upon which these system permutations are built, and allows for seamless integration of other I/O types
with motion control. Continue to explore the above systems and more at ni.com/motion.

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