Implementation of IEC61800 based EtherCAT slave module for real-time multi-axis smart driver system

Industrial network, often referred to as fieldbus, becomes an indispensable component for intelligent manufacturing systems. Thus, in order to satisfy the real-time requirements of field devices such as sensros, actuators, and controllers, numerous fieldbus protocols have been developed. But, the application of fieldbus has been limited due to the high cost of hardware and the difficulty in interfacing with multi-vendor products. As an alternative to fieldbus, the Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) technology is being adapted to the industrial environment. However, the crucial technical obstacle of Ethernet is its non-deterministic behavior that cannot satisfy the real-time requirements. Recently, the EtherCAT protocol becomes a very promising alternative for real-time industrial application due to the elimination of uncertainties in Ethernet. This paper focuses on the development of the real-time EtherCAT network for multi-axis smart driver. In addition, this paper presents performance evaluation of the synchronization on the experimental EtherCAT testbed with 3-axis smart driver.