Rapid Prototyping Environment Script Development Interface
ControlPoint's Rapid Prototyping Environment includes a versatile scripting environment that allows even a neophyte programmer the ability to create simple to sophisticated machine control programs. The RPE Script Development Interface (SDI) is a "shell" around Microsoft Visual Basic that gives you the full power of Visual Basic without having to spend time creating projects or forms. You can write programs as simple as one line, or as sophisticated as a thousand lines or more. Visual Basic's integrated development environment gives you the power of productivity tools like a parameter browser, keyword auto-completion, context-sensitive syntax help, breakpoints, single-stepping, and much more. You can use as much or as little as you need. And since Visual Basic is the most commonly used programming language in the world, with millions of users, there's no shortage of people who can take full advantage of this powerful ControlPoint rapid prototyping and development tool.
The RPE Script Development Interface can be used in many ways, but here are two examples that illustrate its flexibility:
Let's say you want to do something simple that you would normally do with the RPE Control Panel, but it needs a special twist. For example, you need an axis to move back and forth between two points (something you can do easily with the RPE Control Panel) but you want one long move to the left and two short moves to the right, and also you want the acceleration for the short moves to be higher. This sort of script can be written in a couple of minutes with a few lines of code:
A beginner programmer could write this program in just a few minutes, especially with the help of the drop-down menus that list the available commands and their proper syntax.
Another common use for scripting is prototype testing. Let's say you're responsible for the design of a multi-axis module that's part of a larger machine. The first prototype has been built and it needs to be tested for electro- mechanical functioning and reliability. Historically, it has been very difficult to do any real-world automated testing of machine modules prior to the overall integration of the machine. If you wait till the integration stage of the development to begin testing, however, a failure of the module would be very costly in terms of both time and money. With ControlPoint's RPE Script Development Interface, you can create sophisticated test and development software in a few hours or days, early in the design cycle. ControlPoint customers regularly use scripting to write programs that coordinate several axes of motion and a score of I/O points. Homing routines, error handling, user prompts and other more sophisticated elements can also easily be added. Quite often, the code created for the purpose of this prototype subsystem testing is later used in the manufacturing process for automated testing of modules during production.
The code (or a core part the code) created with the SDI in the early phase of machine development is also often used in the final machine software. In fact, even though the SDI was created by Teknic with electrical and mechanical engineers in mind, we've found that software engineers are equally enthusiastic about it. Unlike the electrical and mechanical engineers, who tend to use the SDI for early stage prototype testing and refinement, software engineers typically use the SDI as part of the mainstream software development process. They use it as a means to experiment with different functions, properties and methods in a fast, non-compiled environment. These experiments help them decide how to implement the various functions they need in their application. At that point it's easy to incorporate their findings into the application code (which is typically written in C++). Software engineers also like the SDI because they can focus on the main application development without being distracted by the software needs of other engineers.
ControlPoint's Rapid Prototyping Environment (Control Panel and Script Development Interface) offers a wealth of benefits aimed directly at the area most in need of improvement in the creation of automated machinery—software development. Taking advantage of ControlPoint's RPE typically leads to huge improvements in software development productivity and time-to-market.