Multi-DOF Motion Control System Design and Realization Based on EtherCAT

EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) is gaining wide spread popularity in the automation industry as a real time field bus based on low cost. This paper describes design and realization for a multi degree of freedom (Multi-DOF) motion control system including nine rotation or rectilinear motions where EtherCAT real-time Ethernet was selected as the communication bus. The communication model, master and slave of EtherCAT is provided. The multi-loop controller design for the single rotation motion is described in detail. Finally, some experiment results indicates the effectiveness and technical benefits applying the design and realization methods in this paper.