SpaceWire, A Backbone For Humanoid Robotic Systems

The DLR Hand Arm System is an anthropomorphic system with 52 actuators and 430 sensors of different types. In order to maintain good performance the application must have the most direct access to all actuators and sensors. Therefore, a SpaceWire network connects FPGAs and CPUs and acts as real-time communication backbone. This publication focuses on the SpaceWire protocol implementation and the dedicated extensions that are defined for that system.