Groundwork™ Automation Platform

Today it is hardly possible to find a business that would underestimate the importance of automation disregarding the field of its application. Higher output, increased productivity and improved safety are among the main benefits attributed to automation.

Being an expert in providing automation systems for more than 12 years, Applied Systems Ltd. has collected ample base of proven techniques and developed a flexible software platform that allows providing effective custom-designed solutions taking into consideration every requirement of the customer.

What is Groundwork™?

Groundwork is a cost-effective and time-saving software system intended for the automation of measurement and testing control. The modular software structure ensures the flexibility and scalability of the platform making it easy to expand with plug-ins and extensions. Such a structure also accounts for the powerful reusability technologies Groundwork is known for (reusable components, test equipment structures, user interfaces etc.).

A broad variety of supported software and hardware interfaces makes Groundwork an open and highly adaptable solution which allows solving difficulties inherent in integration of the software and hardware components or integration into stand-alone systems. Powerful facilities for real-time data visualization and analysis (from simple graphs to a complex multi-panel control system) make the system comprehensible and easily adjustable both for sophisticated and non-technical users.

At the same time, Groundwork can be regarded as a collection of components, the most significant of which are

• real-time data acquisition tools
• calibration and check systems
• alarm and error management system
• user access control systems
• tools for data storage and analysis
• numerous visual controls

On the one hand, each of these components is independent enough to be used as a separate module or subsystem, while on the other hand, any of them can be easily configured for the integration with already existing components to constitute a custom-defined platform for the required solution.

Groundwork™ Operation Concept

Working with Groundwork is based on a two-stage principle.

At the first stage there is a convenient environment for creation and editing of projects. It provides flexibility in defining equipment configuration which can be easily adapted to your needs. The intuitive object-oriented interface enables you to describe the project components and their interfaces with zero programming. Ample library of ready-to-use components is expandable, which makes adding any new hardware component to your testing environment fast and easy.

The second stage presupposes the execution of already created projects. As there can be more than one project in one session, it is common practice that all projects and execution settings are saved to a template. Such practice allows you to reuse already created custom-defined projects, which saves time and makes your work in Groundwork more effective. The execution of projects can be managed with the help of visual interface elements allowing you to watch and sometimes adjust the required items of the executed projects.