Safety certified communication enables expansion

Challenge

As industrial robots increasingly operate alongside people, protecting personnel from unexpected failures is a fundamental requirement for functional safety. In addition, to sell robots in North America and Europe, manufacturers must comply with stringent functional safety standards.

For this customer, the requirement was twofold:

• Implement Functional Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) to ensure safe internal communication between the safety controller and servo drives.
  
• Enable safe communication to a Safety PLC via an industrial Ethernet safety interface.
  However, achieving SIL 3 / PLe compliance, while combining FSoE with traditional two channel safety wiring, added complexity and risk, and would have significantly increased development and certification effort.

The challenge was to enable SIL 3 / PL e compliant safety communication within a short development timeframe, without hardware redesign or delays to market entry.

Solution

HMS Networks delivered an FSoE based safety communication architecture using TÜV pre certified software and hardware, backed by local engineering support.

Robot internal safety network (FSoE)
The customer implemented the FSoE MainDevice (Master) software for their Safety Controller and the SubDevice (Slave) software for the safety drive interface. Together, these provide end to end safety over EtherCAT using the black channel principle, achieving SIL 3 / PL e without re architecting the drives.

Robot external safety interface (to Safety PLC)
To provide a standard external safety interface, without major changes to the drive hardware or software, the robot uses the T100 safety hardware (with an integrated FSoE Slave) together with Anybus CompactCom 40.

How the HMS components helped:

• FSoE protocol software (TÜV pre certified source code)
  • MainDevice (Master) and SubDevice (Slave) software supporting the customer’s Safety Controller and safety drive interface 
  • Modular and reusable across safety operating systems and control platforms 
  • Scalable design optimizes performance and simplifies future expansion 
  • TÜV pre certified to IEC 61508 SIL 3 with HMS guidance and test cases for streamlined re certification
    
• T100 Safety I/O hardware (TÜV pre certified with integrated FSoE slave)
  Provides the safety rated I/O foundation and implements the required safety mechanisms (e.g., CRC, time monitoring, sequence checks).
  
• Anybus CompactCom 40
  Integrates the robot with industrial Ethernet and handles non safety communication (e.g., PROFINET / EtherCAT variants as applicable). Safety data passes transparently to the T100 via the black channel.
  
  

Key Benefits

• Shorter development and certification cycles: TÜV pre certified, IEC 61508 SIL 3 aligned stack and hardware plus HMS test assets, reduce certification work and accelerate time to market.
  
• Reliable compliance with global safety standards: End to end safety over EtherCAT via a pre certified FSoE stack and safety rated hardware enhances functional safety performance and supports entry into regulated markets.
  
• Full product lifecycle support: HMS is responsible for protocol stack authorization as well as upgrades and maintenance throughout the product lifecycle.
  
• Future ready safety architecture: The HMS platform, using the Anybus CompactCom 40 and T100, can be reused to support PROFIsafe and CIP Safety as required, without redesigning the hardware. 
  
• Local HMS engineering support (China)
  Expert guidance to de risk integration, accelerate validation, and keep the project on schedule.