A framework for automatic generation of instrument control and monitoring software

In this paper, we present a framework that is easy to develop, modify, maintain and extend a control and monitoring software for any kind of instruments. The presented framework is composed of three XML definitions (IID, MAP, and CMIML), Virtual Instrument Wizard and Generator. IID (Instrument Interface Description) is used to describe sub instruments' interface and MAP contains information about mapping IID to API and CMIML (Control & Monitoring Instrument Markup Language) is used to describe graphical user interfaces, communication mechanisms, command and response formats, etc. Virtual Instrument Wizard supports easy creation of CMIML documents. Finally, generator generates control and monitoring software from CMIML document.