NASA has selected the UEI PAC Cube to help control the Colbert treadmill in its new space-station exercise facility.
The Colbert (combined operational load bearing external resistance treadmill) is scheduled to be up and running early next year.
The astronauts need the treadmill for exercise and for maintaining bone density in a gravity-free environment.
The UEIPAC monitors characteristics of an astronaut's gait and foot-impact forces during exercise.
This is determined by sensing data of various types from accelerometers and load cells in the treadmill and associated restraining equipment.
The UEIPAC hardware is a compact, rugged design that makes efficient use of conductive cooling, making the unit suited for space applications.
The NASA system design also features a finite state machine software structure to control the functioning of the UEIPAC and the treadmill.
The UEIPAC is a good match for this application because the Linux driver and cross compiler supplied by UEI are compatible with the FSM-structured software used for the embedded system control.
UEI's powerful cube architecture is a compact (4 x 4 x 4in [101.6 x 101.6 x 101.6mm] or 4 x 4 x 5.8in) Ethernet-based I/O platform that can be deployed in four different configurations: Ethernet I/O system slaved to a host PC; standalone data logger/recorder; Linux-based programmable automation controller (UEIPAC); or Modbus TCP-based I/O slave.
Each cube consists of a core module (that holds the processor and network interface) along with three or six open I/O slots.
Users select the deployment option before matching the cube's I/O configuration to their application by selecting the appropriate boards.
With more than 25 I/O boards available, there is a configuration to meet almost any application requirement.
The six-slot cube provides up to: 150 analogue inputs, 192 analogue outputs, 288 digital I/O, 48 counter or quadrature channels, 72 ARINC-429 channels, 24 serial or CAN-bus ports, or 12,1553 communication channels.
