CCD_Rasnik straightness monitoring system
CCD_Rasnik: ICARAS
Introduction
ICARAS (Integrated Control and Analysis for CCD-Rasnik)
is the new software that integrates
control of the CCD-Rasnik hardware (i.e. RAS_MUX and the
framegrabber) and the analysis
(reconstruction) of the images.
The software switches the LED of the lightsource on and grabs
images, using the framegrabber.
The data is then analyzed and the results are displayed on
screen or saved to files.
You can read more about:
ICARAS is written in Visual C++ and currently runs under Windows95 only.
We have tested ICARAS on a 133 MHz Pentium PC with 16 MB RAM.
A framegrabber must be installed in the PC. Versions of ICARAS for the Data Translation DT3152
and the Matrix Vision PCprocess-M framegrabbers are available.
Unfortunately some older framegrabbers will not work with Windows95.
ICARAS is connected to the RAS_MUX via the parallel (printer) port.
ICARAS offers an easy to use
graphical user interface that lets you control your alignment
monitoring systems in various ways.
Using ICARAS you can:
- construct a list of the alignment systems connected to the RAS_MUX.
For each system you must fill in several parameters like:
- the RAS_MUX channel to which the CCD and the LED are connected
- the type of mask and lens you use.
- the distance between the CCD and the mask in your system.
This list can be saved on file and will be loaded automatically when you restart the program.
- select a single alignment system from the list and do a measurement and analysis of this
system. You can also save a raw image of a selected system to disk.
- place several alignment systems from the list in a sequence. This sequence determines the
order in which the systems are measured and whether for each system an analysis is carried out
or a raw image is saved or both. You can run a sequence once, in a continuous loop or with a
selected interval.
ICARAS can show the
results of the analysis of an alignment system on screen.
It is also possible to write the analysis results of sequences to
files that can be used for further processing of the analysis data. In addition to this you can write a
log-file that logs the operation of the program for later inspection.
You can set separate paths for the log-file, the output-files and the raw images.
We are still working on improvements of ICARAS. Plans for new versions include:
- creating a separate module for framegrabber control.
In the current version of ICARAS framegrabber control is integrated in the program. Therefore
different versions of the program are needed to work with different types of framegrabbers. In the
future we will locate the framegrabber control in a separate DLL that can easily be replaced if a
new framegrabber is to be used.
- creating a separate module for the analysis.
In the current version the analysis part is integrated in the program at source code level.
Because different people are working on different versions of the analysis software, we are
looking at a method by which ICARAS can work with analysis software that is compiled
separately. In this way it will be easier to test and maintain new versions of the analysis, while
ICARAS itself remains stable.
Go to
CCD_Rasnik home page or the
NIKHEF home page.
You can mail
suggestions for this page to:
Peter Verloop.
july 1996