Bi-Directional Optical-EtherCAT Communication for Motion Network Control of Humanoid Robot

Abstract

Currently, most industrial automation systems and robotic systems require the high-speed transmission of data and highly precise control. We introduce a new communication protocol that is immune to the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) effect, and is able to reduce the space used in internal robots with limited space. In this paper, we present a novel optical-EtherCAT communication method to reduce EMC, to provide high-speed communication between each module, and to offer real-time control and flexible topology in the internal robot. Then, we verify the communication performance between the proposed optical-EtherCAT communication and previously established EtherCAT communication method. We use the transmission speed, frame size, usage rates of bandwidth, update speed, and cycle time of transmission as evaluation criteria.