RoNeX
Connect Hardware to Software Quickly, Simply and Efficiently
High speed, low latency modular system to link your actuators, sensors, even I2C and SPI buses to ROS software control systems. Your robot’s nervous system.
Modern robots need all the processing power they can get
Great new algorithms and libraries for vision processing, SLAM and kinematic control requires bundles of CPU power, GBs of memory and often benefit from dedicated GPU assistance. With RoNeX, it’s easy to connect modern computers to a range of sensors, actuators and much else.
RoNeX will be released Summer 2013 and we will be taking pre-orders soon. To find out more email us at contact@shadowrobot.com or fill out this contact form.
Key Features
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RoNeX Stack
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BRIDGE
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PSU
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MODULE
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MODULE
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Technology
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ROS provides a framework and a wide range of components for developing robotics software, meaning you can focus on the challenge itself. RoNeX has been designed from the ground up to be plug & play compatible with ROS. Simply plug a RoNeX stack into an Ethernet port, load the drivers and you’re good to go. |
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EtherCAT is an open high-performance fieldbus with excellent low-latency and low-jitter characteristics. Used in industrial applications and increasingly throughout robotics, it is versatile, robust and allows powerful host computers direct access to robotics hardware at high bandwidth. |
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RoNeX makes the most of technologies developed at Shadow:
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Available Modules
General I/O
DATASHEET |
Power Supply Unit
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Bridge (In)
DATASHEET |
DC Motor ControllerCOMING SOON DATASHEET |
Stepper Motor ControllerCOMING SOON DATASHEET |
Multi-Bus InterfaceCOMING SOON DATASHEET |
Bridge (Out)COMING SOON DATASHEET |
Analogue InputCOMING SOON DATASHEET |
Digital I/OCOMING SOON DATASHEET |
Frequently Asked Questions
It connects hardware to software quickly, simply and efficiently.
ROS is very popular and it’s definitely the platform to support first – Shadow uses and supports ROS extensively. If you think we should support another platform, or would like to help us develop drivers for your favourite platform, let us know [mailto]. Advanced users will also have the option of bypassing drivers altogether and talking to RoNeX directly.
Absolutely not – with RoNeX, simply plug the Bridge into your computer’s ethernet port using a standard ethernet cable. Note that WiFi or a second ethernet port will be needed to connect your computer to the internet or another network.
We’re starting with the most important functionality first, but we have more Modules in the pipeline! We would like to hear from you (contact@shadowrobot.com) what you think would be the most useful functionality to have first.
It certainly can, and that’s a key feature. The 100Mbps EtherCAT bus allows real-time control loops (up to 1kHz) to be run on a host computer. Offloading control loops to a powerful host computer instead of a local micro-controller means control loop algorithms have more flexibility and can make use of more data, in more intelligent ways.
Yes! This is where ROS comes into its own: it is designed to be distributed over many nodes robustly. What this means is that the ROS node controlling a RoNeX stack can be a small ARM computer, connected wirelessly to other ROS node(s) that may be a lot bigger, doing very clever stuff!
RoNeX modules are great for experimentation and prototyping, and we know electronics can get knocked about, so we have made a great little case for them. The casing is modular and grows with each stack.
Local I/O with high-speed communications simplifies the architecture and lets you worry about mechanics, actuation, sensors and software rather than debugging your electronics. Flexible modules optimise the design, and the micro size of RoNeX means that the high-speed I/O and interfacing is still smaller than any other option.
RoNeX systems come with large I/O capabilities, making them cheaper pin-for-pin than other I/O solutions. The dense nature of RoNeX modules means you need fewer modules for a given robot, and because RoNeX I/O modules are flexible and multi-functional, you can use the same modules in multiple locations to do multiple tasks.
RoNeX is based on EtherCAT, which is designed to be able to run newspaper printing presses and similar large systems with synchronised drives across 100s of metres. You can go 100m with a single ethernet span in RoNeX, and you can put 60 analogue and 60 digital I/Os on a single Stack – and then daisy chain multiple Stacks together (using a Bridge Out Module, coming soon!). The 100 Mbps bandwidth available over EtherCAT is what will eventually place a limit on scaling. Of course if you manage to saturate the 100 Mbps bus one solution would be to add more more ethernet ports and connecting RoNeX Stacks to those additional ports!
So do some of our customers. RoNeX provides a fast prototyping platform, allowing software, actuation, sensors, control and mechanical design work to get started without waiting for electronics, firmware and drivers. RoNeX just works – no need to debug prototype hardware, and it’s easy to have spares in case something gets broken. Meanwhile, instead of designing yet another communications architecture and infrastructure, your electronics team can concentrate on pushing the sensor design, or building a truly excellent brain.