ARC6

ARCS6 v.s. MCUs / DSPs

MCUs and DSPs are suitable for real-time control use cases, but they require the following development efforts.

  •  Program changes require cross-compiling, writing, and restarting.
  •  Debugging requires serial communication with a PC.
  •  Lack of computing resources such as CPU and memory constrains programming

On the other hand, ARCS6 runs on Linux PC, so it has the following advantages.

  •  The large storage capacity allows you to save experimental data.
  •  Input/output devices such as display, mouse and keyboard are available.
  •  File sharing and remote control are possible using the network.
  •  Programs can be changed without cross-compiling or writing
  •  Computer resources are abundant.

ARCS6 has an advantage over MCUs / DSPs in the proof-of-concept and prototyping phases.

ARCS6 v.s. ROS / ROS2

ROS / ROS2 are not suitable for use cases such as motion control because the control period cannot be constant. Even though ROS2 is designed with real-time in mind, it requires patches to the Linux kernel. ARCS6 has an advantage over ROS / ROS2 in that real-time control is possible without modifying the Linux kernel.

About real-time

ARCS6 achieves real-time control without modifying the Linux kernel by occupying one of the CPU cores. Modern PCs are multi-core, so there is almost no problem. Not patching the Linux kernel frees you from various side effects. Please note that the ARCS6 is a soft real-time system and may sometimes fail to adhere to the control cycle.

What you can do with ARCS6

  •  Run/pause/resume real-time threads
  •  Saving experimental data
  •  Variable value display and waveform display
  •  Rewriting variable values
  •  Measurement of control cycle and display of statistics (e.g. standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value)
  •  Measurement of calculation consumption time

What you can do with ARCS6

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