Research Article
TosNet: An easy-to-use, real-time communications protocol for modular, distributed robot controllers
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/ICST.ROBOCOMM2009.5806, author={Simon Falsig and Anders Stengaard Soerensen}, title={TosNet: An easy-to-use, real-time communications protocol for modular, distributed robot controllers}, proceedings={2nd International ICST Conference on Robot Communication and Coordination}, proceedings_a={ROBOCOMM}, year={2009}, month={5}, keywords={Terms---Distributed control Field programmable gate arrays Modular computer systems}, doi={10.4108/ICST.ROBOCOMM2009.5806} }- Simon Falsig
Anders Stengaard Soerensen
Year: 2009
TosNet: An easy-to-use, real-time communications protocol for modular, distributed robot controllers
ROBOCOMM
ICST
DOI: 10.4108/ICST.ROBOCOMM2009.5806
Abstract
This paper presents the TosNet network, created for robotics research, education, and prototyping, emphasizing ease of use, robustness, compactness, flexibility and fast hard realtime response, to allow distribution of all levels of the robot control system. The current implementation of TosNet supports up to 15 nodes, with cycle-rates up to 25 kHz, depending on the configuration. The protocol stack is completely specified as VHDL code, implemented in an FPGA. The physical layer is implemented with Toslink fiberoptic links, offering a compact, robust and highly available link technology. The network uses a shared memory model, where a block of memory is mirrored across all attached nodes each cycle, offering a simple, easy-touse software interface between nodes