Phase 1

Being the first phase, phase 1 is the most clearly delineated phase of the project.  It is in this phase that the initial versions of each component are created.  All subsequent phases build upon the work started in phase 1.

Objective:

Assemble the basic components of the motion control service.

Deliverables:

• A Windows service that accepts goto commands and read requests.  The service will not pass commands down to the motor drivers. Instead it will simply wait 2 seconds, update its internal position value and then output a debug message.
• A console-mode automated test program to verify that the service is working properly.  The test program will send a series of goto commands to the service and then verify that subsequent read requests will return the proper positioning values in the order in which they were sent.  It will also attempt to cause the service queue to overflow.
• A small GUI program that will allow a user to send individual goto commands and read requests to the service.  This can be run concurrently with the automated test program.
• A DLL for the above two programs to use for interfacing with the service input queue. This library will become the standard interface for all Visicon applications.
• An installation utility which will install the service. (This utility is provided by Microsoft's .NET Framework free of charge.)
• A debug monitor program which will display and log debug and error messages from the service. (This is a third-party freeware utility.)

Technical Details:

• Configuration
• Operation
• Interface

Phase 2

Phase two will result in the first "useful" system.  Where phase 1 focused on the interface between applications and the service, phase two focuses on the interface between the service and the lower-level drivers.   A good estimate of the time involved in getting phase two completed cannot be made until the device driver interface is reviewed. However, it is very unlikely that it will take longer than phase 1.

Objective:

Connect the service to the motor control drivers.

Deliverables:

• The 2 second hard-coded delay will be removed from the service and all goto commands received by the service will be passed on to the appropriate motor drivers or motion class.
• The automated tests will remain unchanged.  However, in order for a test to pass, all motion commands sent to the service must result in the appropriate changes in position.
• The other components will remain unchanged.

Phase 3

The service delivered in phase two provides a very minimal set of functions.  In order for the service to be truly useful, it needs to be able to process blocks of commands, cancel pending commands and be notified of events such as safety button presses.

Objective:

Upgrade the service to provide for more application control and notification of events.

Deliverables:

• The service will be upgraded to handle the following new commands: cancel, home, get_error, lock and unlock.  Other positioning-related commands may also be added in this phase.
• The service will process emergency safety button presses by clearing its position queue and alerting registered applications of the button press and release.
• The library interface will be expanded to support all new commands as well as registration of callback routines for safety button presses and other events.
• The automated test program will be expanded to include one or more tests for each new command supported by the service.  It will also test the library's callback routines.
• The GUI program will be expanded to allow interactive access to all new commands.  It will also display an alert box for each asynchronous event from the service.

Phase 4

Phase three will have delivered a solid working service.  Phase four will add on to that service the capability to handle all remaining non-motion controls and any remaining data-acquisition commands.

Objective:

Add non-positioning commands such as light control commands.

Deliverables:

• As with phase 3, all components will be modified to support the additional commands.

Miscellaneous

All software will be written in C++ using the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET development environment.

Before the end of each phase there will be a brief code review.