In this article, BotBlox explores communication buses, and looks into key criteria and evaluates some of the best options available right now and answers the question, what is the best communication bus for robots and drones?
What makes a good communication bus?
We’re talking about robots and drones here, and that usually means we care about the following criteria…
- Physical Robustness – Are the cables and connectors physically robust to strain and abrasion?
- Noise Immunity – Big spinning motors can be a nightmare for introducing noise into our circuits.
- Data Rate – Sensors like cameras require higher data rates.
- Ease of Design – Does the hardware you will use support this communication bus natively? If not, how easy is it for you to add it?
- Open Software – You don’t want to be writing low level drivers from scratch!
- Size – Usually a huge consideration for mobile robots. Tight spaces call for compact connectors and cables.
- Cost – This depends on your budget. Higher data rates usually means higher cost.
Communication bus options
There’s 100s of communication buses so let’s restrict our view to the most widely used; This is preferable because it is generally means more available hardware and software support.
- Embedded buses, SPI, I2C
- USB 2.0
- USB 3.0 (and onwards)
- Ethernet 10BASE/100BASE
- Ethernet 1000BASE
- Ethernet 10G
- CAN-FD
- RS485/422
- RF (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth)
BotBlox’s article goes on to cover:
- Communication buses – evaluating the options
- Case studies
- Key takeaways
Read the full article here, or visit the BotBlox website to find out more.
