Speaker
Mr
Lorenzo Gonzales
(Skylabs)
Description
With the accelerated development of remote terminal units, there is an increased need for a reliable interface protocol that can be used for communication over CAN. While the CANopen interface protocol is developed for automation and used in variety of terrestrial applications, the ECSS variant implements only a subset of its functionality. As such a CAN interface protocol suitable for use on spacecraft that includes all the beneficial features from the current ECSS CAN standard, but offers increased reliability by introducing software-based acknowledgments, was developed. Further, a hot redundant CAN bus for reliable communication was defined. Another key feature is the use of the extended CAN frame format as defined in the CAN 2.0 B standard. The application layer is, in contrast with CANopen IP, less demanding and therefore more suited for implementation on a microcontroller with less processing power.
