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Session Topic: 2B, Automation Session

   

Paper Title: Customizing Automation in the Calibration Laboratory

   

Date & Time: MONDAY, August 5, 2002

 

2:30pm - 4:00pm PARALLEL SESSIONS - SESSION 2

   

Speaker: Tom Lipko BAE Systems Controls

Email: thomas.lipko@baesystems.com

   

Automation in the Calibration lab is a tremendous benefit and seems to be an integral part of our day-to-day operation. Automation helps the metrologist become more efficient by enabling him/her to obtain a certain level of multitasking while maintaining process control and thus helping to control costs. Today, there are a number of calibration software packages available but for one reason or another these packages did not have the functionality we were looking for. I have often thought of the day where I could sit down at the computer, input specifications of an instrument into a text file, hook up the instrument to a communications port and come back in a short period of time with the calibration complete. Well, I'm still waiting, so I took it upon myself to investigate what would be involved to create such an application. I started to code the front end or the control aspect of this application using Microsoft Visual Basic® for the graphical user interface. There are two other major parts to this application: Microsoft Excel® Spreadsheet and Measurement Computing® IEEE-488 hardware and software drivers. Through the start of development I named the application Autocal and it is how I refer to it. AutoCal was created to help simplify calibration automation. There are two ways in which AutoCal helps in this simplification: First, the actual calibration procedure is generated using a Microsoft Excel ® spreadsheet. Second, the user does not have to do any computer programming. There are two modes of operation. One is completely automatic, that is, all data is collected via remote communications and the other is semi-manual where data is inputted using the keyboard. The Visual Basic engine reads the calibration test data, communicates with the operator as to necessary setup connections, and is completed with communication and data collection from the UUT. The reason that Visual Basic was used was it was something I was familiar and comfortable with. Microsoft Excel was used because of the inherent math functions and the ability to interface relatively easy with Visual Basic. This paper explains the functionality of the software, how procedures are generated and what is produced when the two are combined.

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