An article at Control Solutions International describes in detail the factory control and automation system that control systems engineer Rick Van Loon put together using real-time Linux. The system controls an immense machine with six integrated nailguns that assembles shear walls in various configurations. Impressively, changes to the size and type of shear wall can be made instantly, something that used to take hours or days, according to the article.

Van Loon chose to “roll his own” real-time Linux, starting out with Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 and the GPL 2.2.18 RTLinux kernel from FSM Labs, getting things working with help from the RTLinux mailing list and the RTLinux instructions and “Manifesto.”

He says he chose RTLinux for its impressive performance traits, which he measured and verified, and because of its open source nature. Past experience taught him that proprietary software is often buggy. Other factors included the ability to run a real-time system alongside a full-featured Linux, and the low cost of free software.

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