CompactRIO combines measurements, control, and monitoring in a single system providing high-performance processing capabilities, sensor-specific conditioned I/O, and a closely integrated software toolchain that make them ideal for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), measurements, monitoring, and control applications supporting variety of industrial and custom communication protocols.
In a CompactRIO system, a controller with a processor and user-programmable FPGA is populated with one or more conditioned I/O modules from NI or third-party vendors These modules provide direct connectivity of various sensors and signals for measuring physical phenomena such as temperature, sound, vibration, stress in materials, rotational speed, measurement and generation of standard voltage and current analog and digital signals, measurement of high voltage and high current signals and communication through various protocols such as CAN, LIN, SPI, I2C, Modbus, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, EtherCAT and Ethernet and are compatible with the cDAQ design. Some modules allow capturing raw signals with high sampling rates, while others have signal smoothing option through selectable built-in filters options. Due to their flexible FPGA design, they are ideal for developing and testing algorithms for in-line signal processing and filtering as well as custom communications. The modular design provides a simple network-distributed and GPS-synchronized architecture for performing distributed measurements, control and monitoring. CompactRIO is available in both a rugged industrial form factor and board-level design.