🚀 Smart Touches from Emerson to NI SystemLink: AI and Planning Integration!

[Ahmet Ö.]

Emerson Revamps NI SystemLink: Test Processes Accelerate with Smart Planning and AI Power!​

Emerson is making waves with its innovations to the NI SystemLink test operations software. Thanks to resource scheduling and NI Nigel AI integration, product validation processes are becoming more fluid, and fault analysis is speeding up.

Revolutionizing Test Processes: Automated Planning and AI Integration​

These updates, introduced at NI Days Japan, specifically target test operations in the semiconductor, automotive, aerospace, defense, and electronics manufacturing sectors. Measurement data will now combine with operational context, facilitating the diagnosis of engineering faults and accelerating product development timelines.

End to Data Silos: Operational Context and Resource Optimization​

In traditional validation processes, raw measurement results are often kept separate from the test environment. NI SystemLink eliminates these data silos by consolidating execution data with asset histories, test configurations, and active schedules in a central repository.

• Emerson's case studies show up to a 95% reduction in weekly analysis and reporting workload and a 2x increase in daily automated test bench efficiency.
  

Platform Capabilities and Enterprise Deployment​

Functional updates in the latest version cover four main software areas:

• Connected Test Planning and Resource Scheduling: Coordinates physical instrumentation, fixture availability, and test station workloads across distributed labs, alleviating capacity constraints.
  
• AI-Powered Engineering Insights: Utilizes NI Nigel AI to evaluate operational parameters alongside test outputs, flagging anomalies and revealing fault trends.
  
• Out-of-the-Box Operational Visibility: Offers pre-configured dashboards for station utilization, test yields, and calibration schedules, while also allowing for custom dashboard configuration.
  
• Updated SystemLink Architecture: Provides simplified product tiers, unified licensing schemes, and modernized deployment configurations, accelerating setup in enterprise test networks.
  

Launched in 2018 as a central system and asset management tool, NI SystemLink has evolved into an enterprise test orchestration platform supporting modular customization across multi-site manufacturing facilities and engineering labs.

Technical Details: AI and Data Management​

Centralized test data orchestration platforms utilize microservice architectures and polyglot persistence to manage disparate engineering data streams. High-volume parametric results, time-series sensor streams, and transient waveform captures are ingested via secure REST APIs, AMQP message queues, or gRPC endpoints, then parsed into indexed data lakes using open technical data formats like ASAM ODS (Open Data Services) and TDMS (Technical Data Management Streaming). The integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) and agency AI directly into test execution frameworks is based on retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) combined with domain-specific vector databases. These AI engines query structured equipment metadata, including PXI chassis slot assignments, calibration expiration timestamps, device firmware hashes, and sequence execution logs generated by execution engines like NI TestStand, to correlate hardware degradation (such as relay contact resistance drift or ADC thermal offset) with test failure signatures without manual engineering data cross-referencing.