SPREKER
Martin Rostan, Executive director, Ethercat Technology Group

TITEL
Ethercat: Ethernet Fieldbus for mechatronic systems

TIJD

9:30

ABSTRACT
Communication is a key technology within mechatronic systems: both the internal bus for closing control loops and the external communication interface are decisive for the system performance as well as for the system architecture in general. In the past the fieldbus systems formed a bottleneck for the controls, forcing system designers to close high speed control loops locally within intelligent subsystems. Furthermore, legacy bus systems cannot match the performance gain realized by modern processors in PLCs or PC based control systems.
Ethercat is a bus technology that combines ease of use and low costs – like a fieldbus system – with the advantages of industrial Ethernet: an Ethercat master can be implemented on any Ethernet port without extra hardware, Internet Technologies become available and vertical integration is simplified. By using the unique functional principle of ‘processing on the fly’, Ethercat optimizes the bandwidth usage of Ethernet and therefore provides the best possible performance: Ethercat is extremely fast and the update rates exceed the processing performance even of the fastest industrial PCs. The bottleneck is gone, with Ethercat control loops that previously had to be closed locally can now be closed over the bus, and expensive special controllers are replaced by standard I/O interfaces. Also mechatronic systems with classical sequential tasks benefit: By reducing reaction times Ethercat enabled controls improve their efficiency immediately. Ethercat is an IEC, ISO and SEMI standard, and is supported by the world’s largest fieldbus organization. Ethercat enjoys an outstanding adoption rate both among vendors and users; there is a large product selection and a fast growing vendor community.
The proposed contribution will introduce the Ethercat technology in some detail. It will then discuss strategic questions such as technology openness and interoperability, give an overview over the market situation, and put Ethercat in the context of other communication technologies. It will also include a brief overview of the ETG technical working group topics and thus show the development direction of the technology. It will primarily address control system users, not control system vendors.

BIOGRAFIE
Martin Rostan studied Aerospace Engineering in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Subsequently he managed the international research project that developed the initial Canopen technology. Since 1998 he is with Beckhoff, since 2006 as head of technology marketing. Rostan serves the fieldbus community in various committees: he is the executive director of the Ethercat Technology Group and chairs the Canopen groups inside Can in Automation e.V.. He also is technical expert in Iso and IEC standardization committees for industrial communication. With publications in magazines, text books, conferences and symposia he contributes to the dissemination of fieldbus and Ethernet technologies.