data collection/processing programs

Why are you looking to bypass the learning that struggling to write your own code will give you? If you do it yourself, you will then know how to do that particular thing. You will also have fought hard and won, giving you confidence in your field.

This is the type of question American college students would ask if they weren't out partying all the time.

Hi Mikerho,

I completely agree that programming from scratch would be very educational. However, I would also have to concede valuable time overcoming the learning curve as well as stabilising and testing the system core. Eventhough I am not averse to getting my hands dirty, I thought it would be best to explore all my options :)

DhanenMahes:

You don't offer any specifics on the nature of the data or type of processing, but there are very many computerized data aquisition and analysis hardware and software packages available.

Here are a few links:

http://www.ni.com/

http://www.dataq.com/index.html

http://www.omega.com/toc_asp/subsectionSC.asp?subsection=B01&book=DAS

Greg

Hi Greg G,

I'm sorry my query turned out a lil vague. I'm actually developing a Work-In-Progress system to track products that are being manufactured. It's entirely a student project so paying the licence for a commercial product would be a bit too expensive. If i can get funding I will probably use a barcode system to track the product (barcodes are input as numeric values into software, so i assume the data type will only be numeric). I am not considering any sort of vision processing system at the moment.

The software needs to keep track of the product quantity as it passes a few checkpoints. From this it should calculate how many have defects,etc. Systems like this are fairly common in any logistics operation.

I was hoping to find some sort of open source software that could accomplish, if not all, then some of these functions. That way I will have the freedom to add some functions without the hassle of developing and testing a stable system core.

Btw, thanks for the links you provided. I will take a look. Cheers.

DhanenMahes:

Maybe you are a bit premature and some things haven't been defined yet.

You have at least 4 tasks:

The first is to collect the information at various locations: The product, and a location identifier would be the minimum data required.

The second is to make it available to the computer via some communication method (A wireless network might be the easiest, but it all depends on what the system supports, and the particular manufacturing environment.)

The third is to collect the information on the computer, organize and store it. If it is collected in real time, or close to it, you can time stamp it at the receiving computer. Otherwise, it should be time stamped at the collection sites, which means besides the product and location ID's, the arrival time will also be attached to that data "module". If departure time from a location has value then that must be part of the data also.

Finally you need a means of presenting it in an organized informative way (or ways) consistent with your needs.

If you can furnish more specifics, it would be helpful.

That's more or less how it works Greg. Terminals placed at certain positions of the manufacturing/supply/distribution line will transmit data to workstation(s). For simplicity, lets narrow the distance so that we don't have to consider long distance communication.

Lets say we want to track a product as it goes through the manufacturing process. We'd place say 3 terminals. 1 to register the product as it comes in, 1 to register defects and 1 to register the quantity of products we can actually ship. I think barcode scanners would be simple and effective enough.

Depending on the type of barcode reader, the information is then transmitted to a workstation. At the workstation, software records the quantity of products coming in, the number of defects and the number that's fit to ship. The software then displays the information for any authorized user.

A lot of companies use commercial WIP systems similar to this. I'm trying to see if I can find a different adaptation to this method. Since this is a research project, I am not interested in purchasing any commercial software for the functions I outlined above. So my only options are to program 1 from scratch or adapt(adopt?) an open source program.

I hope this helps. And thanks.Cheers.

Typical response from from a person not willing to help. Negative and conceded