EtherCAT with ROS Kinetic

Hi all :)

how would be the correct way, to control devices via EtherCAT using ROS Kinetic? I found out a lot about SOEM, Orocos, etc. There are so many different packages available and a lot of them seem outdated... I tried many, but I didn't make it work for me... Can anybody provide an up-to-date manual on this topic?

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Philipp

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-08-17 05:54:48 UTC

Comments

Or is this only possible with ROS Indigo? If so, does anybody have a manual on this?

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-09-03 02:25:48 UTC

also, I would prefer, to use Ubuntu 16.04, if possible....

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-09-03 02:51:35 UTC

well, SOEM is a library for controlling EtherCAT devices on linux. So yes, you can make this work. SOEM is actually released as a ROS package for kinetic. I've made some ELMO motor controllers work in kinetic using SOEM, but it has been quite some work and hacking. Most importantly, you need to...

Asked by mgruhler on 2018-09-03 06:11:24 UTC

understand the concepts behind EtherCAT as a transport layer and whatever command set you are using. In my case this has been CANopen-over-EtherCAT, which has quite a steep leraning curve if you need to learn both.

In the end, getting a device to work with EtherCAT in ROS is doable, but pretty ...

Asked by mgruhler on 2018-09-03 06:13:02 UTC

device specific, so it would help to no more about what kind of hardware you want to use.

Asked by mgruhler on 2018-09-03 06:14:12 UTC

Thanks! :) I want to use a Beckhoff EtherCAT "Station", which has many digital and analog I/Os. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact type of this station, but I can look it up, as soon, as I'm back in university....

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-09-03 10:32:40 UTC

where can I find this SOEM package for kinetic, that you mentioned in your first comment?

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-09-04 07:03:16 UTC

sudo apt install ros-kinetic-soem. But note that this simply wraps the soem library as a ROS package. You still have to write the ROS driver for your device yourself.

Asked by mgruhler on 2018-09-04 08:27:43 UTC

Thanks again!

Asked by schwarzp93 on 2018-09-06 02:45:03 UTC

I closed this as I just answered in your #q304589. Feel free to reopen...

Asked by mgruhler on 2019-03-12 02:25:08 UTC