An introduction to CANopen

CANopen is a truly open protocol that has not been developed by one company alone. Several working groups, consisting of many different device manufacturers and end-users, have co-operated to produce the CANopen standards, now under the supervision of the CAN in Automation organisation. CANopen has been produced as a result of EU funding. This article gives an overview of some of the fundamental concepts of CANopen communication and of CANopen implementation.