Seminar On VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION i ABSTRACT Virtual Instrumentation The purpose of this seminar is to provide the building blocks for the next generation of field instrument and measurement. Virtual Instrumentation is the use of customizable software and modular measurement hardware to create user-defined measurement systems, called virtual instruments. The primary difference between 'Traditional' or 'natural' instrumentation and virtual instrumentation is the software component of a virtual instrument. The software enables complex and expensive equipment to be replaced by simpler and less expensive hardware; e. g. analog to digital converter can act as a hardware complement of a virtual oscilloscope. This seminar covers mostly all the queries related to virtual instrumentation like virtual instruments, its components, its advantages & disadvantages etc. A synthetic instrument is a kind of virtual instrument that is purely software defined. A synthetic instrument performs a specific synthesis, analysis, or measurement function on completely generic, measurement agnostic hardware. Leveraging commercially available technologies, such as the PC and the analog to digital converter, virtual instrumentation has grown significantly since its inception in the late 1970s. Additionally, software packages like National Instruments' Lab VIEW and other graphical programming languages helped grow adoption by making it easier for non-programmers to develop systems. ii Table Of Contents S.NO. CONTENTS PAGE NO. 1. What Is Virtual Instrumentation? 01 2. History of Instrumentation Systems 03 3. Creation of Virtual Instrumentation 05 4. Early Challenges 06 4.1 Programming Requirements 06 4.2 Drawbacks Of Recent Approaches 07 5. Virtual Instruments And Traditional Instruments 08 6. The Concept Of Virtual Instrument 09 7. Basic Components Of Virtual Instruments 12 7.1 Computer and Display 12 7.2 Software 12 7.3 Interconnect Buses 15 8. Why is virtual instrumentation necessary? 19 9. Why has virtual instrumentation been so successful? 21 10. How do virtual instrumentation hardware capabilities compare to traditional instrumentation? 10.1 Virtual instrumentation products example iii 24 24 11. Virtual Instrumentation for Test, Control, and Design 26 11.1 Virtual Instrumentation for Test 26 11.2 Virtual Instrumentation for Industrial I/O and Control 27 11.3 Virtual Instrumentation for Design 28 Hardware's Role in Virtual Instrumentation 30 What are capabilities of virtual instrumentation hardware? 30 12. 12.1 12.2 On which hardware I/O and platforms does virtual instrumentation software run? 30 What are the benefits of Ethernet for virtual instrumentation? 32 Software's Role in Virtual Instrumentation 33 13.1 The 3 Layers of Virtual Instrumentation Software 33 13.2 What makes LabVIEW ideal for virtual instrumentation? 33 13.3 How does virtual instrumentation take advantage of the 12.3 13 13.4 latest software trends? 35 What is measurement and control services software? 35 14 Applications Of Virtual Instrumentation 37 15 Benefits Of Virtual Instrumentation 38 16 Future Scope Of Virtual Instrumentation 39 17 CONCLUSION 40 18 REFERENCES 41 iv