Invitation to the tutorial on a real-time embedded evaluation board NI myRIO by Edin Omerdić (UL)

PREREQUISITES FROM PARTICIPANTS 

It's required to download the following documents from the Internet and read relevant sections: 
 
NI myRIO Project Essentials Guide

The myRIO Project Essentials Guide serves as the guide to interfacing NI myRIO to the wide variety of sensors, actuators, and displays contained in the NI myRIO Starter Kit, NI myRIO Mechatronics Kit, and NI myRIO Embedded Systems Kit that students will need for projects. Each project concentrates on a specific component or device using a mixture of text and video to guide the student through the learning process necessary to successfully integrate the component or device into the student's system. 
Weblink

 
NI myRIO Vision Essentials Guide

Through a mixture of written materials, video tutorials, and guided hands-on projects, students learn the essential techniques necessary to add vision to their NI myRIO project. Additionally, students create NI myRIO applications that interact with the visual world to sense motion, take physical measurements, read barcodes and printed labels, inspect products for defects, and respond to colours. Students will add LCD displays, switches, and servomotors and create a completely stand-alone application that controls physical apparatus such as a marble sorter and an auto-panning camera. 
Weblink
 
NI myRIO-1900 User Manual

The National Instruments myRIO-1900 is a portable reconfigurable I/O (RIO) device that students can use to design control, robotics, and mechatronics systems. This document contains pinouts, connectivity information, dimensions, mounting instructions, and specifications for the NI myRIO1900. 
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SCHEDULE 

Day 1: 15 November 2018 (Thursday)    

  
 
Day 2: 16 November 2018 (Friday)    

EXPERT VISIT PLANNED OUTCOMES:

• Learn how to connect, configure and use NI myRIO to design control, robotics, and mechatronics systems.

• Explore ways to use NI myRIO in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Vision applications. 

LECTURE DESCRIPTION:

NI myRIO: Getting Started (Day 1)

In this lecture, students will learn how to connect myRIO to PC, how to set up software and configure hardware, and how to create a first myRIO application. 

NI myRIO: Deployment of a Standalone Executable App (Day 1)

During typical development, NI myRIO is connected to PC with a USB cable or wireless/wired network. After development is completed, it is possible to deploy the project as a stand-alone application stored on the myRIO solid-state hard drive, which starts automatically when myRIO is powered up. This lecture explains the steps for the deployment. 

NI myRIO: SPI Serial Communication (Day 1)

This lecture is focused on demonstration of myRIO features how to configure SPI serial communication and how to send, read and process data. 

Hands-on: PWM Control of T200 Thruster (Day 1)

This practical session is focused on the development of an interface between control software and physical actuators (thrusters) using NI myRIO. Two approaches will be explained: (i) approach based on Express VI (RT only, without the need to develop FPGA code), and (ii) approach based on RT & FPGA code development. Methods to overcome friction/dead zones for low-speed rotations will be demonstrated for both approaches. The practical session will demonstrate how to use FPGA to generate PWM signals for high precision speed and direction control of Blue Robotics T200 thrusters. 

Hands-on: Discrete LED Demo (Day 2)

This practical session is focused on describing the essential concepts related to LEDs, selection of suitable current-limiting resistor and two different ways to control LED through myRIO DIO: current-sourcing interface and current-sinking interface. 

NI myRIO: Machine Vision (Day 2)

Machine vision systems play a critical role in manufacturing automation, shape and colour analysis, and robotics. With little more than a USB webcam students can create NI myRIO applications that interact with the visual world to sense motion, take physical measurements, read barcodes and printed labels, inspect products for defects, and respond to colours. The first part of this lecture introduces students to a generalized application development flow suitable for all of the machine vision projects in LabVIEW. The development flow includes defining the application’s requirements, configuring the imaging system and acquiring representative images, calibrating to real-world units, developing the vision processing script with NI Vision Assistant, and developing and validating the complete machine application with NI LabVIEW. It also introduces the “Queued State Machine” design pattern that serves as the basis of the “Machine Vision App” (MVA) LabVIEW project template that students will use to implement selected application projects. The second part of the lecture will provide more insight into a procedure on how to set up and calibrate the camera. 

Hands-on: Machine Vision (Day 2)

In the first part of practical session, students will learn how to connect a USB webcam to myRIO, how to acquire and process a single image and a video stream, how to set a webcam attribute such as saturation and how to use NI-MAX software to determine available video modes and attributes for a webcam. In the second part, students will explore a subset of ten advanced projects (Coin Counter, POS Terminal, Keyed Optical Lock, DMM Test Stand, Gauging Station, Product Label Inspector, Component Placement Inspector, Motion Detector, Auto-Pan Camera, Marble Sorter). Each of these ten design-oriented projects introduces new machine vision concepts and associated NI Vision implementation techniques. 

BIOGRAPHY

Edin Omerdic received the Dipl. Eng. and M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 1997 and 2001, respectively. In 2001 he joined the Mechatronics Research Centre, University of Wales, Newport, UK and took part in the EPSRC funded IMPROVES project. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wales in 2004, with the thesis titled “Thruster Fault diagnosis and Accommodation for Overactuated Open-frame Underwater Vehicles”. 
 
Edin is currently employed by the University of Limerick as a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering. He is engaged in numerous research projects funded by the Higher Education Authority and the Marine Institute in the area of submersible robotics, he is also the main developer & designer of OceanRINGS concept & software suite, including the design of state-of-the-art control architecture for ROV LATIS, MRE ROV, and I-ROV. Edin's research interests include: Modelling & Simulation of Dynamic Systems, Real-Time Simulators & Real-Time Embedded Control Systems, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Simulated Reality, MultiModal Human Machine Interface for Cyber-Physic Systems based on AI techniques (VR headsets, speech recognition, hand gesture recognition), Machine Learning, Application of AI Techniques (Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic) in Intelligent Systems, Guidance, Navigation and Control System for Marine Platforms, Nonlinear Control Systems, Underwater Robotics, Fault-Tolerant Systems, Internet of Things and Network Security. 
 
Up to date, he has 25 journals, 6 book chapters, 2 books, 59 papers in conference/workshop proceedings, 15 invited lectures, 4 keynotes/plenary talks, 11 tutorials, 22 presentations & technology demonstrations, 2 articles in business magazines, 2 online articles, 1 desk study. Dr. Omerdic received five awards for his work, including First Prize Winner in National Competition in Mathematics (Bosnia, 1985), Society of Underwater Technology (SUT) Prize for Best Multimedia Presentation (GCUV 2003) 'Thruster Fault Accommodation for Underwater Vehicles', IFAC prize for best online demonstration (MCMC 2003) 'Fault Detection and Accommodation for ROVs', IMarEST SMI Donald Maxwell Award Prize for Best Journal Paper (2004) 'A Fuzzy Track-Keeping Autopilot for Ship Steering' and Curriculum Paper Contest National Instruments International Competition LabVIEW in the Curriculum 2006 (First Prize Winner) 'Virtual Underwater Lab: Efficient Tool for System Integration & UUV Control Development'.