Multi-Motor synchronous control with CANopen

A Brushless DC (BLDC) motors synchronous control system based on the CANopen (a communication protocol and device profile specification for automatic embedded systems) protocol is proposed in this paper. Multi-motor control is popular in robot or automation system, and the synchronization is an important issue, may be the key issue. The CANopen is a solution, due to Process Data Object (PDO) protocol. A Texas Instruments microcontroller TMS320F28069 is used as master to control six BLDC motors used as slave in this paper. The Master sends synchronization object to slaves’ base on the communication profile CAN (Controller Area Network) in Automation (CiA) 301 and the motion control profile CiA402. The system suns at 500 kbits/s and 1 Mbits/s transmission rate by setting PDO. The firmware details in this paper to show six-motor synchronous control.