A universal system for laboratory data acquisition and control

A highly distributed system for laboratory test and experiment monitoring and control is presented. The SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) approach, as typically found in the industrial environment, was followed to base this design, leading to a rigidly structured architecture which proved to be highly manageable and robust. Ultimately, a powerful laboratory aid tool was the result of a virtuous combination of a sound modularity concept with a communication mechanism based on the CANopen high-level protocol serving a virtual instrumentation strategy.