CONTROL BUSES - The Real Time Networks

You will find here some informations about control buses used in industrial automated applications such as motion control, multi-axis control, robotics, servo-drives networking ...

  See also : Fast Ethernet | Real Time Ethernet - ISO 1588

"Controller Area Network (CAN) is the network developed for embedded use in cars. Today, CAN is the network in use for embedded control, martime electronics, lift control etc."

www.canopen.org

It is used for servo-drives networking in motion control too.

"ControlNet technology provides real-time control over communication networks that deliver high-speed transport of both time-critical I/O and messaging data, including upload/download of programming and configuration data and peer-to-peer messaging on single or redundant physical media. [...] ControlNet is highly deterministic and repeatable [...]"

www.controlnet.org

 See also : CIP | Ethernet IP | Ethernet | Real time Ethernet - ISO 1588

"The DRIVECOM [...] [is a standardized] communication interface for accessing drives. The DriveServer specification is based on the OPC interface standard, version 2.0. [...] It is comparable to a layer between a user program with OPC client interface and the communication media. [...]"

www.drivecom.org

"EtherCAT enables high-performance machine controls to be realized, capable to exchange many distributed signals with cycle times significantly below 100 μs. [...] The same system technology can be used from “small” PLCs for less than 100 € to high-performance CNC.

EtherCAT is characterised by outstanding performance, very simple wiring and openness for other protocols. [...] Where other real-time Ethernet approaches require special connections in the controller, for EtherCAT very cost-effective standard Ethernet cards (NIC) are sufficient.

[...] Full Ethernet compatibility, internet technologies even in very simple devices, maximum utilisation of the large bandwidth offered by Ethernet, outstanding real-time characteristics at low costs are outstanding features of this network."

www.ethercat.org

Ethercat is used both as a control bus, a sensors / actuators bus, and a building bus.

 See also :Ethernet | Fast Ethernet | Real time Ethernet

"MACRO [...] is a non-proprietary digital interface developed by Delta Tau Data Systems for connection of multi-axis motion controllers, amplifiers, and I/O. MACRO is an Ethernet style protocol that uses a multi-mode fiber optic (FDDI-PMD ISO/IEC 9314-3) or twisted pair copper (CAT5) which is called 100BASEFX and 100BASETX.

MACRO lends itself well to large multi-axis applications where the amplifiers and I/O are spread out in several cabinets around the machine. Packaging, converting, processing, and textiles machinery as well as robotics systems, and automated assembly lines all can benefit from MACRO's advantages."

www.macro.org

 See also :Ethernet

"MECHATROLINK is a Field Network positioned as a Motion Field Network. [..]

Only one communication line is required to connect 30 stations on a network. This can greatly reduce costs and time for wiring. MECHATROLINK simplifies a motion control system so that it no longer requires the D/A converter for speed/torque reference and the pulse generator for position reference."

www.mechatrolink.org

"ETHERNET Powerlink is an ISO/OSI level 2 protocol enabling deterministic, isochronous, real-time data exchange via standard Fast Ethernet (IEEE 802.3 u). It allows high precision data communication with cycle times as low as 100µs and network jitter well below 1µs. Deterministic real-time data communication is specifically important for the automation industry."

www.powerlink.org

 See also :Ethernet | Fast Ethernet | Real Time Ethernet

 See also :Profibus | Profinet

"[...] SERCOS interface not only defines a real time communication system but also specifies more than 500 standardized parameters which provide a vendor-neutral semantics for the interoperability of controls and drives. Further to drives, also I/O stations are being connected to the bus, so that most standalone machines do not require an additional fieldbus. [...] Up to now more than 1,5 Million SERCOS nodes are used world-wide in over 300 thousand applications. [...]

The third generation of the SERCOS interface standard (SERCOS III) is an evolution of the existing SERCOS standards (IEC/EN 61491), based on standard Ethernet. The known and proven SERCOS mechanisms like e.g. the motion control profiles, the telegram structure or the hardware synchronization, have been mapped to the Ethernet standard. To ensure hard real-time requirements in spite of the Ethernet use, SERCOS III uses an additional, collision-free real time channel parallel to a non-real-time channel. [...]"

www.sercos.org

"SynqNet is a high performance network technology designed to simplify machine development and manufacture, and lower the cost of in-field support and upgrade.

SynqNet is an all-digital motion control interface for connections between controllers and drives, I/O devices, and other custom nodes. SynqNet motion network is based on the industry standard IEEE802.3 physical layer for robust electrical isolation and cable/connector availability with an open data layer implemented by Motion Engineering Inc. [...]"

www.synqnet.org

 See also :Ethernet