Accuracy Improvement of Master–Slave Synchronization in EtherCAT Networks

Park, Sung-Mun; Kim, Hyoung-Woo; Kim, Hong-Ju; Choi, Joon‐Young

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2982704

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To further evaluate the synchronization performance of ASA, a comparative experiment 2 was established. Park 3 proposed a synchronization method between EtherCAT master and slaves, which transferred the error between the master and reference servo to servos (MSTS). MSTS achieved master–slave synchronization by adjusting the system time of all servos instead of the master system time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scholar Park 1 introduced a novel synchronization algorithm between EtherCAT master and the external processor; however, it still depended on the real‐time Linux. Scholar Park 3 proposed a novel synchronization method between master and slave; however, it still cannot function independently of the real‐time operating system (RTOS). However, the accuracy of synchronous method proposed by scholar Chuang 2 entirely depended on the real‐time performance of the operating system (OS).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Innovation of EtherCAT adaptive synchronization control in embedded CNC

Cao

Wang

Jia

et al. 2023

Int J Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

EtherCAT is a real-time Ethernet protocol and has been widely used in the field of motion control owing to its high speed (100 or 1000 Mbps), low processor occupancy, and good synchronization performance in slaves. However, the master-slave synchronization method is blank in the EtherCAT protocol. The study proposes a novel master-slave synchronization method that relies on the stable sync0 of reference slave by adjusting the trigger moment of master interpolation period to settle packet loss caused by EtherCAT master-slave un-synchronization, adaptively and dynamically. Furthermore, the proposed method improved EtherCAT to a whole new level, indicating that the EtherCAT master no longer depended on the real-time operating system (RTOS). In addition, a synchronization predictive compensation mechanism was adopted to eliminate the compensation lag defect of existing synchronization methods. Compared with conventional studies, the synchronization method improved compensation efficiency, settled inaccurate compensation with evaluation derived from different working frequencies, and eliminated accumulative error in clock. Finally, the proposed method added almost no computation and communication load and only required eight or 16 bytes to modify the EtherCAT frame coding in the interpolation period. Experiments were carried out on machine tools to demonstrate the advantage of the proposed method in improving the synchronization performance, with an average communication jitter of only 32-71 ns.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation of EtherCAT adaptive synchronization control in embedded CNC

Cao

Wang

Jia

et al. 2023

Int J Communication

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In an EtherCAT network, the latter is realized by use of Distributed Clock mechanisms, which can be improved by using system time drift compensation [15]. A solution, similar to those based on a Distributed Clock, has also been implemented on a Linux platform [16], which involved a time synchronization setup between Linux and the EtherCAT master [17].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilization of SDN Technology for Flexible EtherCAT Networks Applications

Smołka

Stój

2022

Sensors

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

At the beginning of the current century, Ethernet-based communication networks began to be implemented in industrial applications. Some previously used protocols were migrated to Ethernet networks, while many others were strictly developed for this communication medium. Numerous industrial Ethernet protocols do not deliver all the capabilities provided by the Ethernet. For example, limitations may arise associated with wireless communication, use of dedicated switching devices, or operation solely for certain topologies. On the other hand, new technologies are now available, such as software defined networks (SDN), that add new features to Ethernet-based communication systems. In this paper, an EtherCAT network in combination with SDN is analyzed. EtherCAT network may only consist of devices with an implemented EtherCAT protocol stack. Therefore, regular Ethernet switches cannot typically be used in this network and, hence, special network infrastructure may be required to create topologies other than standard line topology. It is shown, however, that this limitation can be overcome by the application of SDN. In addition, a definition of datagram forwarding rules (called SDN flows here) is given, and we demonstrate that EtherCAT datagrams can be sent through routes that are required for proper EtherCAT network operation.

show abstract

“…EtherCAT provides a solution called a distributed clocks (DC) mechanism to ensure slave-slave synchronization, so the master-slave clock synchronization has great room for improvement [10,11]. In [12], a master-slave synchronization algorithm was developed to compensate for the propagation delay between the EtherCAT master and the reference slave. The literature [13] used precision time control protocol (PTCP) embedded in EtherCAT frames to achieve high-quality master-slave synchronization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Novel Heterogeneous Parallel System Architecture Based EtherCAT Hard Real-Time Master in High Performance Control System

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

EtherCAT is one of the preferred real-time Ethernet technologies. However, EtherCAT is not applicable in high-end control fields due to real-time constraints. Clock synchronization and cycle time are the most representative limitations. In this paper, a novel Heterogeneous Parallel System Architecture (HPSA) with features of parallel computation and hard real-time is presented. An HPSA-based EtherCAT hard real-time master is developed to significantly improve clock synchronization and shorten cycle time. Traditional EtherCAT masters feature serial processing and run on a PC. This HPSA-based master consists of two parts: EtherCAT master stack (EMS) and EtherCAT operating system (EOS). EMS implements the parallel operation of EtherCAT to realize the shorter cycle time, and EOS brings a hard real-time environment to the HPSA-based master to improve clock synchronization. Furthermore, this HPSA-based master operates on a heterogeneous System-on-a-chip (SoC). EMS and EOS form a heterogeneous architecture inside this SoC to achieve low-latency process scheduling. Experimental results show that in our HPSA-based EtherCAT hard real-time master, the cycle time reaches the sub-50 μs range, and the synchronization error reduces to several nanoseconds. Thus, this HPSA-based master has great application value in high-performance control systems.

show abstract

Accuracy Improvement of Master–Slave Synchronization in EtherCAT Networks

Cited by 14 publications

References 17 publications

Innovation of EtherCAT adaptive synchronization control in embedded CNC

Innovation of EtherCAT adaptive synchronization control in embedded CNC

Utilization of SDN Technology for Flexible EtherCAT Networks Applications

A Novel Heterogeneous Parallel System Architecture Based EtherCAT Hard Real-Time Master in High Performance Control System

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About