There are some controllers over 100 MHz that use Ethernet so I am curious if we can use UDP instead of SPI for the Microdriver.
I am curious if anyone is familiar with Ethernet for robotic controller. It is not as ubiquitous as SPI so it is hard to get a frame of reference.
Hello,
udriver v1 / v2 uses a micro controller that doesn’t support Ethernet so it is not easy to implement.
Ethernet is a fast and robust link but lake from real time characteristics when using IP protocol such as UDP.
A standard that is being adopted by the robotic community is EtherCAT, a real time protocol based on raw Ethernet and ring topology. The updated udriver V3 will support EtherCAT but with an add-on shield that is not compact enough to fit in the mobile ODRI robots.
Instead we will continue to use SPI and MasterBoard with a single point to point Ethernet connection with a computer.
We have longer plan to use a faster link between microdrivers using FSI, a Texas Instrument link that offer 400 Mbps as Max speed and much more compact and flexible than EtherCAT.
Hoping this helps,
Thomas.
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