The SERCOS Trade Organizations announced the release of the specification for the Controller-to-Controller (C2C) Synchronization and Communication Profile, a profile for interconnecting motion controllers using the new SERCOS III Industrial Ethernet-based standard for motion control. The profile defines mechanisms to interconnect distributed control functions and to synchronize distributed motion controls in modular machines and systems via the SERCOS III interface.
The specification takes into consideration innovative SERCOS III features, such as hardware redundancy, hot-plugging and cross communication.This effort addresses the increasing need in manufacturing systems engineering in which individual machine modules not only need to be connected mechanically, but also need to be integrated into communication networks and coupled in hard real-time. Typical applications for this profile are in printing, packaging and processing machines; as well as machine tools with special requirements for control systems and synchronization, e.g., machine concepts with gantry axes or rotary transfer tables.
Manufacturer-specific solutions - based on available SERCOS interface physics – presently exist for synchronization between distributed motion controls. With the C2C profile, this type of communication has now been standardized.
