Second International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering ICECE 2002, 26-28 December 2002, Dhaka, Bangladesh

PC Based Automated Systems Using National Instruments LabVIEW Software Package and Data Acquisition (DAQ) Card
R. N. Roy Engineers Associates Limited, IT/Engineering Consulting Firm 7/7 Sir Syed Road, Block-A, Mohammadpur Housing Estate, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh Abstract Now a days, Automated Systems are being developed using Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Micro-Controllers, and Microprocessors etc. In this paper, the author will mainly focus on the development of automated systems using Personal Computer (PC) and National Instruments Data Acquisition (DAQ) card and LabVIEW software package. LabVIEW stands for Laboratory Virtual Instruments Engineering Workbench. The quantities of any physical system to be automated are sensed by the sensors and converted into electrical signals by the suitable transducers and signal conditioners. The electrical signals either analogue or digital forms are then applied to the PC through DAQ card. The PC will then do the necessary processing and send the output signals to the protective devices or related equipment/machinery through the same DAQ card. A computer program is required to develop to receive the signals from the transducers through the DAQ card, process the signals and send the output signals to the protective devices or equipment/machineries to be controlled. This program is written using LabVIEW software package. LabVIEW is a graphical programming language to develop the program unlike C/C++, BASIC etc. With the help of LabVIEW, simulation of the physical system can also be developed to monitor the quantities to be measured and status of the equipment / machinery in the plant from remote point without accessing the inaccessible areas of the plant. This PC based automated systems can be applied in various industrial applications such as, high-rise building security system, automatic car parking system, factory automation etc. Keywords: DAQ : Data Acquisition Card LabVIEW : Laboratory Virtual Instruments Engineering Workbench PC : Personal Computer VI : Virtual Instruments PCI : Peripheral Component Interconnect 1. INTRODUCTION PC based automated system, in general, requires sensors, signal conditioners etc. to sense the quantities to be monitored or controlled. The signals then are sent to the PC through Data Acquisition (DAQ) card. The signals are then processed and the output signals are sent to the actuator through the DAQ card to control the plant or process. A block diagram of a typical automated system is shown in Fig.-1.

Fig.- 1 : Block diagram of a typical automated system

2.

AUTOMATIC CAR PARKING SYSTEM

Car parking is a big headache in developed countries in particular. Huge amount of time is wasted to search parking space in the car p ark. This wastage of time can be minimized if the user knows availability of parking space before entering into the car park. If the car park is full, the user can find another park to keep his car and save his valuable time. In the conventional car park the user has to pay the parking charge to the attendant at the exit gate. After payment, the attendant opens the exit gate and the car is allowed to leave the park. The author has automated all these activities to make car parking completely automatic. Pressure sensors have been installed at the entry and exit gate to sense the car waiting for entry or exit and give input signals to the computer to count the number of vehicles entering and leaving the park respectively. The number of cars available in the park will be the difference of the number of vehicles entering and the number of vehicles leaving. When a car approaches to the entry gate, computer will decide whether any

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space is available or not. If no space is available, the computer will then send signal to entry gate to keep the gate closed and also to the monitor to display the message Car Park Full. If there is space in the park, the user will enter his car number in the keyboard located at entry gate and the entry gate will open to allow the car to enter the park. The computer will then store the number of the car and the time of entering into the park in the database. Similarly, at the time of exit, as soon as the car approaches the exit gate, the user has to enter his car number. The computer will then calculate the parking charge multiplying the rate fixed by the authority and the total period spent in the park and this amount will be displayed to draw attention of the car owner to pay. As soon as the amount is paid, the computer will send signal to the exit gate to open and allow the car to leave the park. A schematic diagram of the car parking system is shown in Fig.-2.

M-1

Actuator Pressure sensor with signal conditioner

Entry

Car Number (Entry)

Exit

Car Number (Exit) Insert coins

Key pad Pay counter Actuator

M-2

Fig.-3 Block Diagram of Automatic Car Parking System 3.1 Personal Computer [1] The PC must be of IBM compatible with Pentium-III processor of minimum 800MHz. speed and minimum 64MB RAM and PCI slot etc. 3.2 DAQ card and Other accessories PCI 6534 DAQ card [5] of the National Instruments Inc. has been used for data acquisition. PCI 6534 has 40 channels out of which 32 I/O (4 ports of 8 lines), 4 dedicated output & control and 4 dedicated input and status. Block diagram of PCI 6534 DAQ card is given in Fig.-4 and I/O connector of 68 Pin Assignments for PCI 6534 is given in Fig-5.

Fig.-2 3.

Schematic Diagram Of Car Parking System

HARDWARE REQUIREMENT

The following hardware is required to implement PC Based Automatic Car Parking system: Personal Computer with Pentium Processor PCI 6534 DAQ Card & I/O Connector and other accessories Pressure Sensors & Signal Conditioners Keyboards/ Keypads with LCD display Video Display Unit (VDU) Cash Counter (Coin Separator) with Display DC motors with Arm A block diagram of Automatic car parking system is given in Fig.-3.

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Monitor

CPU

Pressure sensor with signal conditioner

NI- DAQ Card

Keypad

3.5 Video Display Unit (VDU) In order to display the status of the car park before entering into car park, either CRT [1] or LCD [2] can be used. 3.6 Cash Counter (Coin Separator) with Display At the time of leaving the car park, the parking charge is required to display. A cash counter is required to place in the convenient place to pay the parking charge by the users. Liquid crystal display with coin separator has been placed at the exit gate to count number of coins of different denominations. 3.7 DC Motors with Arm Fig.- 4. PCI 6534 Block Diagram 12V DC reversible motor [6] with an arm mounted on the shaft of the motor has been chosen for closing and opening the gate. 4. SOFTWARE LabVIEW DEVELOPMENT USING

4.1 LabVIEW Basics LabVIEW [7] is the only graphical programming system with a compiler that generates optimized code with execution speeds comparable to compiled C programs. LabVIEW uses a patented dataflowprogramming model; called G that frees from the linear architecture of text -based languages. The execution order in LabVIEW is determined by the flow of data between blocks and not by sequential lines of text. LabVIEW is a multitasking and multithreaded system, running multiple execution threads and multiple VIs. With LabVIEW, VI is built instead of writing programs. Front panel user interfaces are created for the interactive control of software system. To specify the functionality, block diagrams are intuitively assembled. Fig.-5. 6534 I/O Connector, 68-Pin Assignments 3.3 Pressure Sensors and Signal Conditioners The standard load cells [3] have been used for sensing the weight of the car at the entry or exit. When the pressure sensor senses a car, it will send a digital pulse to the counter to count the number of cars entered or exited. 3.4 Keypads with LCD display Standard alphanumeric keypad [1] with LCD display [2] have been used for keying in car number at the time of entry or exit. On the Front Panel of VI, the controls and data displays for the system are p laced by choosing objects from the Controls palette, including numeric displays, meters, gauges, thermometers, tanks, LEDs, charts, graphs, and more. When VI is complete, the front panel can be used to control the system while the VI is running by clicking a switch, moving a slide, zooming in on a graph, or entering a value from the keyboard. To program the VI, the Block Diagram is constructed without worrying about the many syntactical details of conventional programming. Objects (icons) are selected from the Functions palette and connected them with wires to pass data from one block to the next. These blocks range from simple arithmetic functions, to advanced acquisition and analysis routines, to network and file I/O operations.

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4.2 LabVIEW system requirements LabVIEW can be used with Windows 2000/XP/NT/Me/9x, Mac OS, Linux, and Sun without sacrificing portability or reusability with the following requirements: 32 MB RAM minimum, 64 MB recommended 65 MB disk space for minimal LabVIEW installation, 200 MB for full installation Pentium processor or equivalent recommended

6. CONCLUSIONS Development of PC based automated systems is very popular for its easy monitoring and control from remote place or near the plant itself. There are various ways to develop these automated systems. The author has explained his experience in developing PC based automatic car parking system as a typical system using the National Instruments DAQ product and labVIEW software. Using NI DAQ and labVIEW, it is very easy to develop any automated system. But the author has faced a problem in receiving to and sending signals from DAQ Card when the system was in operation. This was because of loading effect on DAQ card when all lines of DAQ card are activated, which caused voltage drop. However, the author has overcome this problem by isolating all inputs and outputs by optoisolator and also designing all external circuits (Signal Conditioner/ Actuator) to give low output impedance and high input impedance. This automatic car parking system may be further improved by introducing the latest image sensors for identifying the car and also payment of parking charge.

5.0 SIMULATION AND EXECUTION In order to simulate Automatic Car Parking System to monitor centrally and execute the sequence of activities for parking the cars, LabVIEW has been used. The Data Flow Diagram of the Automatic Car Parking System is given in Fig.-6.

Counter

(Entry)

+
z

Display status of park

REFERENCES [1] Rafiquzzaman, M., Microprocessors and microcomputer based system design, 2nd edition, CRC Press, Inc., 1995 [2] Ronald J.Tocci , Neal S. Widmer, Digital Systems and Applications, 2000 Millennium edition, Prentice Hall International, Inc. 2000 [3] Albert D. Helfrick & William D. Cooper, Electronic Instrumentation & Measurement Techniques, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall of India Private Ltd. Reprinted in January 1996

Counter

(Exit)

Park capacity

<

Enter Car No.

AND

Save in Database

M-1 Calculate parking charge Display parking charge

Enter Car No.

[4] A. K. Sawhney, A Course on Electrical and Electronic Measurements and Instrumentation, Edition 2001, Dhanpat Rai & Co. (P) Ltd., 2001 [5] http://www.ni.com, DAQ 653X User Manual, January 2001 Edition, National Instruments Inc.

[6] P. Ryff, Electric M acinery, 2nd edition, McGraw Hill [7] http://www.ni.com., User Manual LabVIEW 6i, 2001 Edition, National Instruments Inc.
Pay parking charge

M-2

<=

Fig.-6 Data Flow Diagram of Automatic Car Parking System

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