Muhammad AdnanEngineering & designIdeas engineered. Solutions delivered.

Electronics & Embedded

Engineering project

6-DOF Robotic Arm Controller PCB

8-layer controller PCB for 6-DOF industrial robot arm with EtherCAT, servo drives, and force/torque sensing.

RoboticsEtherCATAltiumMotor Control
White industrial robotic arm in a bright showroom Enlarge image
Representative photograph: White industrial robotic arm in a bright showroom.
6-DOF Robotic Arm Controller PCB — architecture diagram Enlarge image
Explanatory system architecture: inputs, engineering model and outputs.
6-DOF Robotic Arm Controller PCB — workflow diagram Enlarge image
Explanatory workflow for the engineering analysis and validation process.

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Project brief

Central control electronics PCB for a 6-axis industrial robot arm integrating the main MCU, six-axis servo drive interface (STO/SBC safety functions), 6-DOF force/torque sensor amplifier, EtherCAT industrial fieldbus controller, and safety I/O for emergency stop and safeguarded space monitoring. The board supports ROS2 integration via a gigabit Ethernet port.

This case study presents the integration responsibilities of the controller board. It does not add a new safety assessment or robot performance claim.

The engineering challenge

Coordinate multi-axis motion interfaces, force sensing, and supervisory communication on one controller PCB.

Engineering approach

  1. Partition servo, sensing, communications, and safety I/O functions.
  2. Use the industrial fieldbus path for coordinated axis exchange.
  3. Connect the embedded controller to the stated ROS2 companion interface.

Features & capabilities

  • 6-axis servo drive interface: HIPERFACE DSL encoder, STO/SBC, 100V/20A
  • EtherCAT fieldbus slave controller (ET1100) for real-time motion bus
  • 6-DOF force/torque amplifier: instrumentation amp, 24-bit ADC per axis
  • Safety circuit: IEC 62061 / ISO 13849 Category 3 PLd assessment
  • 1kHz coordinated motion update — <100μs inter-axis latency
  • ROS2 compatible via embedded Linux on companion processor
  • 8-layer mixed-signal PCB with separate analog/digital/power ground planes
  • Built-in current sensing for all servo axes via shunt + differential amp

Software & engineering tools

STM32H743, FPGA (Lattice ECP5), ET1100 EtherCAT, AD7175 ADC, Altium Designer (8-layer)

More engineering to explore.

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