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Virtual Instrumentation I

* Exchange students do not have to consider this information when selecting suitable courses for an exchange stay.

Course Unit Code450-2028/01
Number of ECTS Credits Allocated6 ECTS credits
Type of Course Unit *Optional
Level of Course Unit *First Cycle
Year of Study *Third Year
Semester when the Course Unit is deliveredWinter Semester
Mode of DeliveryFace-to-face
Language of InstructionCzech
Prerequisites and Co-Requisites Course succeeds to compulsory courses of previous semester
Name of Lecturer(s)Personal IDName
BIL45prof. Ing. Petr Bilík, Ph.D.
Summary
Students will get familiar with the basic principles of software and hardware tools for designing the virtual instrumentation systems and they will learn basics of graphical programing language G and development system LabVIEW.
Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit
The goal of Virtual Instrumentation I course is to get familiar students with hardware and especially software tools which are used for creating automated measurement systems. Students will get familiar with philosophy of graphical development environment.

The basic programming skills in graphical development environment.
Course Contents
Lectures:
Virtual instrumentation as generous trend in measurement instrumentation, architecture of automated measurement system, phases of measurement and software support, structuring of development instruments in measurement domain, basic philosophy of development environments used in graphical programming.

Introduction to LabVIEW development environment, graphical programming language G, Virtual Instrument as basic module of creating application in G language, main parts, data driven paradigm, debugging instruments, stepping, visualization of data flow, probes, brake points.

Graphical user interface of virtual instrument, front panel, objects of front panel, their selecting, front panel editor, front panel pop-up menu, data types, structures, modes of front panel objects.

Block diagram of virtual instrument, creating, end points - terminals, definition of data paths, program structures and its representation - cycles FOR, WHILE, branching, sequence, indexing on input and output tunnels, shift registers, polymorphism.

Structured data types in LabVIEW, representation on front panel of virtual instrument, graphs and graph data types, programming method of creating.

Properties of virtual instrument, window of virtual instrument and its settings, parallelism in LabVIEW, priorities in parts of block diagram, function WAIT.
Generous structure of application composed of subsidiary tasks without parallelism, shared data area, data transferring, global variable.

Property nodes in block diagram, using property nodes for programmatic controlling property of a front panel object, visibility, user accessing, graph property nodes.

Strings, string front panel, display modes, work with string controls, searching, formatting into string, scan from string, function for formatting and scanning.

Data storing in files and functions for data storing in files, functions for working with files, type of files for storing data.

Used defined objects front panel objects, methods of creating and editing, definitions of front panel object parts, add objects in library, and picture import.

Error cluster, meaning in sequence control of an instrument, using, programming technique to make run application in LabVIEW effective.

Application of programming structures for solving standard problems, use shift registers, in iteration calculations, standard approach to create an application – top level virtual instrument.
Information about VI II. class.

Projects:
Software applications in G language oriented into measurement area.

Laboratories:
Lab. 1:
Introduction into development environment LabVIEW, graphical programming language G, main principles of graphical programming, Data Flow principles, modular programming, debugging tools LabVIEW.
Lab. 2:
Control program structure in G, FOR and WHILE loops, SHIFT registrs and using, implementation in floating average.
Lab. 3:
Array, indexing, auto-indexing in loops, functions polymorphism.
Lab. 4:
Cluster (structure), functions for work with structures.
Lab. 5:
Graphs, graph data structures.
Semestral project setting.
Lab. 6:
Structure CASE, Formula Node, Strings.
Lab. 7:
Property nodes, using. Program controlling of front panel object properties.
Lab. 8:
Work with strings, string changing, searching, searching, formatting into, scanning from.
Lab. 9:
Application composed with more virtual instruments, sub-virtual instrument, data sharing between parts of application, global variable.
Lab. 10:
Work with files, types of files, using functions for data storing. Storing data into TXT data file, reading TXT data file.
Lab. 11:
Dialog windows, mode of virtual instrument running.
Lab. 12:
Work on semestral project.
Lab. 13:
Work on semestral project.
Lab. 14:
Semestral project evaluation, test, accreditation.
Recommended or Required Reading
Required Reading:
1. Getting Started with LabVIEW, National Instruments, Austin 2013
1. WITTASSEK, Tomáš. Virtuální instrumentace I. Učební text. Ostrava: VŠB TU, 2012
2. BLUME, Peter A. The LabVIEW style book. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2007, xxi, 372 s. ISBN 978-0-13-145835-2.

Recommended Reading:
1. CONWAY, Jon a Steve WATTS. A software engineering approach to LabVIEW. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, Professional Technical Reference, c2003, xiii, 221 p. ISBN 01-300-9365-3.
1. VLACH, Jaroslav, Josef HAVLÍČEK a Martin VLACH. Začínáme s LabVIEW. 1. vyd. Praha: BEN - technická literatura, 2008, 247 s. ISBN 9788073002459.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Lectures, Experimental work in labs, Project work
Assesment methods and criteria
Task TitleTask TypeMaximum Number of Points
(Act. for Subtasks)
Minimum Number of Points for Task Passing
Exercises evaluation and ExaminationCredit and Examination100 (100)51
        Exercises evaluationCredit45 (45)20
                Semestr ProjectProject35 15
                TestWritten test10 5
        ExaminationExamination55 15