Basic Features of Sercos Automation Bus

Sercos is a short form for serial real-time communication system; a digital automation bus that interconnects motion controls, drives, I/O, sensors, and auxiliary devices such as cameras and weighing stations. Sercos is an open controller-to-intelligent digital device interface, designed for high-speed serial communication of standardized closed loop data in real time (RT). Sercos I and II transmit data over a noise-immune fiber-optic cable, while Sercos III transmits data over a standard CAT5 Ethernet cable and alternatively over a fiber-optic cable.

Sercos not only is a real time communication system but also offers more than 700 standardized parameters that describe the interplay of drives, controls, and auxiliary devices in terms independent of any maker. It offers advanced motion control and I/O capabilities for electronics, pneumatics and hydraulics.

Related: Features of HART Communication Protocol

Sercos offers short data update times and low communication distortion for any kind of automation applications for example, high-performance multi-axis machine control systems. Sercos greatly reduces connectivity problems in control systems. It can connect up to 254 slave devices, i.e. drives, I/O, auxiliary devices to a control using one fiber-optic cable ring (Sercos I or II) or up to 511 devices on a single Ethernet cable (Sercos III), compared to a traditional analog servo system with eight axes of motion that may require over 100 wires between the drive and the control. This makes the system less costly, and helps eliminate many types of noise problems as well as assists the industrial machine control designers get the motion control systems up and running swiftly.

Also read: Advantages of Industrial Control Networks