The automobile industry inclusive of the off highway and mobile machinery are cost sensitive at the same time technology craving industries. To keep pace with technological advancements these industries constantly invest heavily in research and development projects. These projects vary from electronics to mechanics to offer a greater customer experience, performance, safety, security and much more. Communication plays a vital role in vehicles and currently these industries are in search of a next generation fieldbus satisfying all industry requirements along with providing an enhanced performance.

Importance of communication

In today’s age of data and information, it is of prime importance to not only exchange data but also to do it safely and securely. CANopen is widely used in automotive, off highway and mobile machinery for exchanging information. Over the years, the amount of data exchanged has increased exponentially and in the future will continue to grow. With the addition of sensors, IOs, and cameras the bandwidth requirements have escalated. Camera integration on a vehicle was unthinkable a couple of year back. As a feature available in vehicle in the minds of users it has moved from a ‘good to have’ to a ‘must have’ feature. CANopen being based on serial communication limits in these bandwidth requirements. Consequently exhausting all available resources, the industry is in search of a next generation fieldbus, which provides a common backbone for all communication. 

CANopen also has a number of variants providing higher speeds. However, Ethernet based communication is the obvious choice, which provides higher speeds and larger bandwidth. Like CANopen it is a manufacturer independent open technology. However, the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) mechanism plagues Ethernet communication making it non-deterministic. This is generally not suitable for achieving a real time communication at sensor level. In addition, it is prone to hacks and security breaches. Apart from determinism, the number of interfaces a manufacturer has to equip their Electronic Control Units (ECUs) grows with addition of features supporting different communications.

With the size of electronics reducing day-by-day and vehicle light-weighting gaining prominence, if the number of interfaces keep on increasing he will not be able to keep pace with the industry demands. 

POWERLINK a logical addition to CAN

Imagine achieving openness, features, determinism and robustness of CANopen coupled with speeds and hardware of Ethernet. This is not a concept but is currently available and used in mobile and off highway machinery extensively. Ethernet POWERLINK is simply termed as CANopen over Ethernet. It thus combines features of CANopen and standard Ethernet for enhanced performance and bandwidth. Just imagine the benefits a manufacturers gain with this combination, one network for transmitting sensor data, IO data, GUI data and even camera live feeds.

POWERLINK is a communication standard based on standard Ethernet. It is a truly software implementation to achieve deterministic, real time communication with cycle times down to 100µs. It is completely open source and is available free of cost with no license fees, patents and copyrights. As no hardware modifications are required, it is not tied to a particular physical layer used for communication and thus can work with copper cables, fiber optic or even wireless. The technology offers a complete multi-master, media and ring redundant systems which can help in making vehicle available at all times and provide a degree of safety with redundant ECUs.

Ligthweighting with features and performance

Many would argue that CANopen uses two wires cabling whereas Ethernet uses four wires or POE could use four or eight wires depending on the IEEE standard selected and this increases the weight on the vehicles. In automotive the technology from Broadcom known as BroadR-Reach has gained recognition due to its ability to transmit data and power over a twisted pair cable. POWERLINK communication has been successful tested over this technology with a cycle time of 250µs. Thus, now users can benefit from the wiring of CANopen for POWERLINK and at the same time get advantages of Ethernet based deterministic communication.

The requirements of automotive and off highway and mobile machinery are very diverse. Automotive needs a higher bandwidth for transferring audio and video signals whereas off highway and mobile machinery has a requirement for deterministic and real time communication. POWERLINK satisfies both these requirements comfortably.

Safe and secure communication from cloud to field level

In automotive as well as mobile and off highway machinery safety is critical. Humans and vehicles are at stake. In addition to using safety devices it is necessary to have a safe communication in order to guarantee complete safety. Looking at different networks used in automotive and off-highway equipment it is impossible to have separate safety protocols for different networks. Keeping these aspects in mind we have come up with openSAFETY. openSAFETY is the world’s first and only TUV certified safety protocol which is fieldbus independent and completely open source. Thus the safe data can be exchanged between field devices or multiple ECUs.

Availability of data is not only necessary when we are in the car or driving it, but it could always be essential to access data in real-time. This is where the connected car or the Industry 4.0 approach is important. However, we should be aware that data has to be sent securely to the cloud for access over the internet and received securely from the cloud. With OPC UA and OPC UA over TSN, another open source platform independent technology OEMs can guarantee secure transmission of data right from the cloud to controllers and assets.

It is possible to have an application on your phone and gather data from vehicle securely without a possibility of a hack or invasion. This data can be operational data or maintenance data from vehicles. OPC UA over TSN delivers 18 times more performance than conventional solutions. This makes it possible to implement time-critical applications in vehicles as well as for vertical connectivity. Whether fast and centralized or intelligent and distributed, automation solutions can be adapted to needs of various application more easily with OPC UA over TSN. The result is a boost in both productivity and product quality.

One stop shop for all needs

B&R Industrial Automation makes it easier than ever to implement automation solutions for construction equipment and municipal vehicles as well as for agriculture and forestry applications. B&R has been relying on open source connectivity for years providing connectivity interfaces and software for CAN, J1939, POWERLINK, OPC UA and OPC UA over TSN. With complete hardware and software solutions for mobile machinery, B&R is a one stop shop for all the automation needs of OEMs manufacturing off-highway and heavy equipment.