Modern measuring technology is more and more defined by the intelligence of the used software. This applies to the individual sensor and its electronics as well as to the aggregation, evaluation and the visualization of the measurement data obtained. The close relationship between hardware and software development in our team enables us to customize our sensors and devices to our customers' needs at all times.
Programmable logic (FPGAs) is the central control element of the sensors developed by us. This allows a real time data processing with cycle times in the nanosecond range. The triggering of a fast image sensor is just as easy as the development of an application specific signal processor. At the same time, they provide a flexible platform for realizing different applications by using the same hardware.
The ideal supplement to an FPGA is a high performance microcontroller for all tasks which are less time critical but in programming more complex as for example network and fieldbus communication, data management, and sequence control. Apart from the simpler controllers we rely in particular on Altera's ARM-SoCs. The integration of cores, peripherals and FPGA on one chip enables a highly efficient communication between the individual components and saves space as well as costs.
The VOLAS team has many years of experience in the use of Linux as operating system for embedded systems, so that we are able to customize it to meet the exact needs of our sensors and expand it with drivers for the electronics developed by us.
Modern sensors will not be complete without a graphical interface for parameter setting, diagnosis and visualization. VOLAS offers cross-platform solutions in the form of Java Apps or a browser-based application which can directly be loaded from the sensor.