National Instruments announced a collaboration that combines the LabVIEW graphical system design software and MobileRobots Inc's MOBILEROBOTSindoors autonomous mobile platforms to help engineers deploy service robot applications. MOBILEROBOTSindoors is a general-purpose platform that helps non-programmers customize and install autonomous robots for applications such as couriers, guides, kiosks and inspectors. The robots also offer easy interoperability with third-party vendor solutions.

MOBILEROBOTSindoors technology is the basis for numerous robotics companies' autonomous robotics solutions, and robots using this technology drive millions of kilometers each year in factories, hospitals and offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. LabVIEW delivers a graphical programming environment that makes it easy to add accessories, including manipulators, sensors and other task-specific components, to robots with MOBILEROBOTSindoors technology and to integrate these robots or robot fleets into an automation environment such as factories, clinical labs or facility security systems.

LabVIEW simplifies application development by abstracting the underlying code, making it ideal for robotics engineers, who often have experience with mechanical or electrical engineering but limited or no software programming knowledge. The seamless integration between LabVIEW and MOBILEROBOTSindoors is made possible by a set of LabVIEW VIs, which are available at www.ni.com. Using MobileRobots Inc's TCP/IP-based protocol, engineers can connect to MobileRobots platforms and program them with LabVIEW to add custom capabilities such as speed and directional changes.

Engineers also can use the VIs to take advantage of the Mobile SimBank at the MobileRobots headquarters to remotely test their simulations for both single robot designs and more complex fleet applications to reduce disruption when the robots are installed in a factory or other location. In addition to software customization, the collaboration between the two companies makes it possible for engineers to add NI hardware such as NI CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO and NI Smart Cameras to MobileRobots intelligent mobile bases and autonomous navigation systems. Using NI hardware with the robots, engineers can add more complex manipulators and stereo vision.