Robot Arm EtherCAT Master

This project was meant to control a custom 6-Degrees-of-Freedom Robotic Arm using ethercat drivers

Figure: Robot Arm EtherCAT GUI

Results

Here is a link to a Youtube video showing this project in action

Requirements

• OS: Linux 20.04 LTS (can work in other releases but it was developed on this one)
• Computer: any regular laptop or desktop with a network card compatible with EtherCAT
• Single Board Computers: this project works on the Nvidia Jetson nano as it is and possibly it works on raspberry pi as well

Compatible EtherCAT Modules

• Maxon's EPOS4
• Cubemars Motor Driver
• DIEWU GPIO Box

Installation

1. Clone this repository
2. On the root of the project run the install.sh

install.sh

3. Double check that everything installed fine

ls $RA_ECAT

ls $SOEM

Testing

To test this project run:

1. change directories to the root of the folder:

cd $RA_ECAT

2. Build the project:

./scripts/build.sh

3. Run one of the templates:

./build/RobotGUI

NOTE: it may be required to use sudo since this programs use the network interface of the computer