EtherCAT-Based Multi-Axis Motor Control with FSoE

Industrial robots, servo systems, and factory automation equipment increasingly require synchronized multi-axis motor control, deterministic industrial Ethernet communication, and SIL3-capable functional safety. Industrial machine builders need a scalable architecture that combines real-time EtherCAT networking with Functional Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) while reducing system complexity, certification effort, and development time.

This EtherCAT^®-based multi-axis motor control system provides a scalable safety network for industrial robots, cobots, servo systems, and other factory automation applications. The EtherCAT Main Controller supports FSoE for safety-related communication and coordinates communication with multiple EtherCAT SubDevices used for motor control. An external functional safety MPU provides cross-monitoring of safety-related control functions. This distributed architecture supports functional safety implementation up to SIL3 while maintaining separation between safety-related and non-safety control domains.

System Benefits:

• Enables distributed safety processing while maintaining separation between safety-related and non-safety control domains.
• Supports EtherCAT-based multi-axis motor control with Functional Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) for safety-related industrial network communication.
• Enables SIL3-capable functional safety on CR52 cores using Functional Safety Platform Software (PL-SW), with redundant FSoE MainInstance functionality and mutual cross-monitoring.
• Provides a scalable system-level reference architecture combining MPU, power management, interface, and isolation devices to help reduce development effort for industrial safety networks and multi-axis motor control systems.