Test & Measurement

Test and Measurement Description Topics

• Integrating Acquisition and Analysis
• Interfacing with External Devices
• Analyzing and Visualizing Data
• Developing Algorithms and Models
• Presenting and Reporting Results

Integrating Acquisition and Analysis

Many engineers find that the test and measurement process doesn't end once the data is captured or the test is run. They need to turn that data into concrete results through careful analysis and modeling. In the past, this has required that the test and measurement process be accomplished in multiple environments. Often, collected data is saved to a file and then manually transferred to another software package, such as MATLAB, for analysis.

MATLAB now provides an easy way to go directly from collecting data to deriving informative results. MATLAB helps engineers and scientists analyze, visualize, and model complex information, and it provides tools for communicating with and controlling your test equipment.

"With just a few commands, we can quickly pull data directly into the MATLAB analysis environment…we now have a full solution for data collection and analysis."

The MATLAB Test and Measurement Solution

MATLAB supports the entire data acquisition and analysis process, including interfacing with data acquisition devices and instruments, analyzing and visualizing the data, and producing presentation-quality output. With the MATLAB tools for test and measurement applications, you can:

• Use a single, integrated environment for hardware interfacing and data analysis
• Communicate with your industry-standard hardware and bring live, measured data into MATLAB
• Read and write data and commands to your instruments
• Perform computations and data analysis during or after the acquisitions
• Visualize your data during acquisition to help you fine-tune your test setup
• Verify simulations and system models
• Create presentation-quality reports and graphics of your results
• Exchange collected data with databases

Tools for Test and Measurement

MATLAB
MATLAB provides leading-edge analysis and visualization functionality. You can use MATLAB tools to communicate with devices through your serial port (RS-232, RS-422, RS-485) and to directly call generic DLLs.

Data Acquisition Toolbox
The Data Acquisition Toolbox lets you stream live, measured data directly into MATLAB. You can control and communicate with data acquisition hardware from vendors such as Keithley, Measurement Computing, National Instruments, United Electronic Industries, and Agilent, and create custom hardware interfaces using an included adaptor kit.

Image Acquisition Toolbox
The Image Acquisition Toolbox lets you acquire images and video directly into MATLAB from industry-standard hardware, including analog and digital frame grabbers from Matrox and Data Translation, USB and FireWire scientific video cameras, and Web cameras.

Instrument Control Toolbox
Using the Instrument Control Toolbox, you can communicate with instruments via GPIB, VXI, TCP/IP, and UDP communication protocols. The toolbox also provides intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for creating instrument objects and communicating with instruments.

Additional Tools
MATLAB has more than 40 toolboxes for advanced analysis, simulation and modeling, application development that complement test and measurement applications, including:

• Database Toolbox
• Spreadsheet Link™ EX
• Image Processing Toolbox
• MATLAB Report Generator
• Signal Processing Toolbox
• Statistics Toolbox

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