Portable Data Acquisition Solution with High Performance

For most computer peripherals, USB connection has become the standard. Quanser's engineering team is taking this technology a step further, with a novel data acquisition solution that allow users to interface to hardware through a USB connection, while maintaining a high performance levels.

Slated for release in spring 2010 are two new data acquisition systems - the 8 channel high performance Q8-USB with 16-bit ADC and DAC resolutions, hardware encoder velocities and external trigerring, and the economical 2-channel high performance Q2-USB with 12-bit ADC and DAC resolutions, as an alternative where the full functionality of Q8-USB is not required.

In development - computer rendering of the Q2-USB

With closed-loop sample rates of 1 kHz and higher, +/-10V analog input and output range, and plug-and-play functionality, these systems represent a portable solution suitable for various teaching and research applications.

Stay tuned for more details.

Qball-X4 and Qbot: Follow the leader!

The Unmanned Vehicle Systems Laboratory is one of the latest additions to the wide range of Quanser experiments. We set up a simple demo that shows just one of the many ways the UVS lab, consisting of Qbot unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), Qball-X4 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Quanser's real-time control software QUARC, and a localization system using OptiTrack(TM) cameras can be used.

In this demo we took one Qball-X4 and one Qbot and got them to cooperatively run a mission. We chose to do a simple leader-follower mission where the Qbot acts as the leader and the Qball is the follower. Both vehicles operate fully autonomously with no human controller whatsoever. The localization system tracks the vehicles' positions and sends this information to the vehicles. The vehicles can also communicate wirelessly with each other.

The mission planner first selected a few waypoints for the leader (Qbot). Once the vehicles were launched, the Qbot navigated autonomously to each waypoint. The Qball received the leader's current position 200 times each second and tried to follow the leader by flying above. Once the mission was done the Qball landed itself. Everything in the mission controller from inter-vehicle communication to flight stabilization and sensor measurements was programmed using Simulink tools and QUARC blocksets.

This mission is just one example of what can be accomplished using the open-architecture Quanser UVS Laboratory. We are looking forward to seeing what everyone else can do with the system. We will continue to develop new and exciting experiments and we hope to see others doing the same!

-Cameron

QUARC: Hard-Real-Time Performance with QNX Neutrino

QUARC supports a continually increasing number of targets. A "target" is a combination of operating system and processor for which QUARC can generate code from a Simulink diagram. The target is also where the QUARC-generated code runs. Targets constitute one of QUARC’s four pillars as described in one of the previous post. The best deterministic hard-real-time performance with QUARC is currently achieved when running the model on a QNX Neutrino target, taking advantage of the QNX Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) industry-proven technology.

The upcoming QUARC 2.1 now supports the latest QNX Neutrino, version 6.4.1. This updated support has actually been demonstrated by QNX Software Systems (QSS) themselves at the QNX booth at the Embedded World 2010 Exhibition & Conference show in Nuremberg, Germany, at the beginning of March 2010. The QNX demonstration used QUARC to run Quanser’s SRV02-based Rotary Self-Erecting Inverted Pendulum experiment equipped with a slipring in order to allow for unlimited and unhindered (due to the elimination of cables) base rotation.



The corresponding QUARC controller robustly runs in hard-real-time under QNX at a 1-kHz sample rate (i.e., 1-ms sampling interval) while communicating to a custom Flash/OpenGL-based user interface (GUI) using the Quanser Stream API (to get the updated sensor data in realtime). More information about our Stream API can be found in the QUARC: Communication Capabilities and Framework article. In addition, the Quanser Target API is also used to start/stop the QUARC control model from the QNX custom demo application. The hardware platform used for this demonstration consists of a x86 system configured by QSS to run with both Windows and QNX by means of using RTS Hypervisor. The QUARC-based controller used the RTOS system timer and has proven itself to be very stable during the 3-day Embedded World conference.

Additionally the Quanser 3D Viewer can be launched in Windows to offer a virtual 3D realistic representation of the actual system being run by QUARC.



This results in a 3D animation depicting the actual system, running in parallel, and mirroring in real-time the exact behavior of the real system. More information about this QUARC feature can be found in the QUARC: Virtual Plant Demo - SRV02 Self-Erecting Inverted Pendulum blog post.

Based on this success, Quanser is currently actively investigating supporting additional QUARC targets such as QNX PowerPC (PPC) systems as well as other possible embedded architectures.

Quanser Stream API: Powerful and Flexible Communication

The Quanser Stream API, on which QUARC Stream blocks are based, offers a flexible and communication-protocol-indent framework. It allows to carry out standard communication not only between QUARC models, but also between a QUARC model and an external third-party application (e.g. graphical user interface - GUI), or even between two external third-party applications. This feature is of great importance in various research applications where software integration, design and integration of GUI and distributed control are needed.

The Stream API is independent of the development environment and is currently fully implemented in C/C++, .NET languages, MATLAB and LabVIEW. It can be readily extended to other languages and environments as required. This makes any Quanser Stream protocol accessible from and to external applications.

The QUARC communication framework, using the Quanser Stream API, follows the well-established client/server communication mechanism implemented in either a blocking I/O mode (i.e. asynchronous I/O in a separate thread) or non-blocking I/O mode (i.e. synchronous I/O in the model current thread). The Quanser Stream communication framework is open and structured to readily accommodate and integrate new communication protocols as required. At present, the Quanser Stream API has communication protocols available for the operating systems that QUARC can target, such as Windows (32-bit XP and Vista), QNX and Linux ARM (gumstix). The Stream API also allows for switching from one communication protocol to another by only changing the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) string defining the new protocol to be used. The rest of the blocks or functions used in the communication remain untouched!

QPID - A New Generation of Data Acquisition Boards

Quanser's QPID is the new generation of PCI and PCIe Data Acquisition Boards that brings researchers more functionality and features. A new personality is developed using FPGA technology, offering a higher real-time performance. Based on the National Instruments RIO technology, QPID comes with a customized terminal board for easy access to signals.

Leveraging Quanser's control development expertise, QPID Data Acquisition Board comes with a pre-loaded "Quanser personality". Use the QPID with Quanser's terminal board to get 8 analog inputs, 8 analog outputs, 8 encoders (with encoder velocities), 56 DIO, external ADC triggering, RTSI (multicard ADC trigerring), external interrupt, fuse good indicator and SPI with 1 dedicated slave select.

Stay tuned for more details!

Ontario Premier Chooses Quanser to Host his Press Conference

Quanser's expertise and cutting-edge robotic and haptic technology with applications in various medical fields won our company more praise recently. Quanser was given the honor of hosting Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty as he announced a Trade Mission to Israel slated for May 2010. On February 11, 2010, PremierMcGuinty and the delegation of Ontario and Israeli government officials visited Quanser for this special event.

The mission will focus on building healthcare industry and high-tech sector partnerships with Israeli companies. Quanser is a great example of how Ontario businesses can benefit from successful collaboration with Israeli companies in the life sciences sector. Since 2007, Quanser has been collaborating with Simbionix from Israel, a company that develops interactive computerized endoscopic medical training simulators and advanced clinical visualization systems for minimally invasive surgery.

The press conferences was preceded by a tour of Quanser that gave government officials a chance to try Quanser's cutting-edge technology.

Highlights from the tour and the Press Conference hosted by Quanser

Special guest at the Press Conference - Her Excellency Miriam Ziv, Israel's Ambassador to Canada is greeted by Paul Gilbert, Quanser's CEO and Jacob Apkarian, Quanser's Founder and CTO.

Under the guidance of Jacob Apkarian, Quanser's Founder and CTO, Dalton McGuinty performs his first teleoperation - on a banana.

Sandra Pupatello, Ontario's Economic Development and Trade Minister discussing Quanser's haptic needle insertion surgical simulator with Paul Gilbert, Quanser's CEO.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty experiences one of the many applications of haptic technology. Here Quanser's Hexapod allows the driver to "feel the ride".

Remote signing technology, tested by Monte Kwinter, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, can be used by governments and legislatures to transfer a "pen and ink" signature in real-time from anywhere in the world.

At the Press Conference hosted by Quanser, Premier McGuinty announced the trade mission to Israel to "strengthen cultural and commercial ties" between Ontario companies like Quanser and Israeli companies in the life sciences sector, "while creating jobs for Ontarians".

Special guests at the event (from right to left): Ted Sokolsky, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; Amir Gissin, Israeli Consul General, Toronto; Miriam Ziv, Israeli Ambassador to Canada

Shaking hands with the Quanser team - the Premier was truly impressed by the innovative work we do.

Grade 8 Girls Learn about Quanser at Electronics Workshop

Every year, Blair McKay, the electronics teacher at Listowel District Secondary School, invites Grade 8 students to his custom-designed electronics lab - eLab. During the eDays - Electronics Days - the students can find out more about electronics and robotics and engage in hands-on activities.

The eDays are held separately for boys and girls. For the girls' eDay, the guest speakers are all women who have exciting careers in electrical engineering, computer engineering and mechatronics. I have been a guest speaker at eDays since 2004. This year, I talked to the girls about how much fun I have working at Quanser, and showed them videos of our control experiments and research equipment. This video of teleoperation on a banana was a real hit!

The workshops are clearly successful at attracting young women to take electronics in high school. Listowel District Secondary School typically has several full classes of girls in Grade 9 electronics!