Use ROS as a Ethercat Slave (SOES)
Hi all,
I would like to use a ROS pc as an Ethercat Slave via SOES (Simple Open EtherCAT Slave) (or another package). I see that many implementations are available whereby ROS is used as a Ethercat Master (via SOEM), but I can't find any implementation as a Ethercat Slave. Can anybody help me with this?
Background info: The reason why I would like to do this is because I would like to use 2 pc's:
- PC1: Ubuntu - running ROS - Ethercat slave - semi-real-time - for high-level functions (high-level behavior/tasks, navigation (reference signal), GUI)
- PC2: Windows - plc pc - Ethercat master - real-time - for mid/low-level functions (sensor/motor control, status & safety, sensor fusion/odometry)
I do not understand EtherCAT, but if your only concern is to run ROS on two computers and allow communication between them, you can connect the computers with LAN and use the Multimaster-FKIE package to connect their ROS masters.
The problem is that the second computer ("PC2") is not running ROS. So I'm not able to use the multimaster package.