MOTION INTEGRITY ARCHITECTUREArchitecture
Deterministic where it must be. Open where it should be.
KineticON is architected for the machine that will exist in ten years, not only the three-axis gantry that started it: a 256-axis coordinated namespace so no one ever discovers that an 8-bit axis identifier limited the protocol, physical tiers from 4, 8 and 16 local axes to distributed systems, and silicon partitioned so that each job runs where its timing belongs.
In short: a multicore real-time SoC for motion, communications and supervision; FPGA fabric for capture, pulse generation, timestamps and triggers; an independent safety processor with its own watchdog paths; EtherCAT as the open drive network with an optical KineticFabric tier for extreme machines; one hardware time base; geometry that is validated before anything moves.
Drive network · KineticFabric™
EtherCAT for interoperability. An optical fabric for machines that need more.
EtherCAT is a first-class, open drive network in KineticON, with distributed clocks that synchronise devices to well under a microsecond in hardware. For the highest tier, KineticFabric is studied as a native optical deterministic fabric: very low latency and jitter, optical immunity to electromagnetic interference, large axis counts, distributed FPGA timestamping, controller-to-drive synchronisation and a redundant diagnostics channel — designed from the problem, not cloned from anyone’s bus.
And legacy is not abandoned: high-performance pulse/direction channels, quadrature interfaces and local encoder capture let KineticON modernise the machines already on the floor.
TimeFabric™ · one clock for the whole machine
Everything that happens should agree on when it happened.
Precision machines are full of things with their own sense of time: motion, cameras, lasers, pumps, valves, ADCs, spectrometers, acquisition systems. TimeFabric combines EtherCAT distributed clocks, hardware timestamps, IEEE 1588 PTP where appropriate, external clock and trigger inputs and deterministic event outputs — and is investigated for interoperability with White-Rabbit-class timing, which CERN built to reach sub-nanosecond synchronisation over Ethernet.
Every important event carries a hardware-derived timestamp.
One hardware time base: every event carries the same clock.
Fired from the encoder in FPGA fabric: every event lands the same distance apart, whatever the axis speed is doing.
ProcessSync™ · hardware events from motion
Windows must never be responsible for microsecond-class synchronisation.
ProcessSync takes position-synchronised output much further. An external process can be triggered by actual encoder position, commanded position, vector distance, vector velocity, acceleration, trajectory phase, time, an encoder index, a digital capture, a geometric region or tool state — and drive a laser, a dispenser, a camera, a valve, a strobe, a spectrometer, an ADC, a marker, an actuator or any deterministic hardware event.
It executes in FPGA fabric. Watch why that matters: when an axis decelerates, a timer bunches the events together; firing by measured position keeps them where the process needs them.
ToolSafe™ · geometry awareness
Motion control should know enough geometry to refuse an idiotic move.
ToolSafe stores the machine envelope, axis envelopes, tool, fixture, holder and product geometry, cable constraints, safe Z, restricted Z and swept volume, in two layers:
- Real-time safe regions — simple, deterministic controller-level limits and hard forbidden regions that execute every cycle.
- Higher-order collision model — swept geometry, tool/product/fixture interaction, kinematic collision and trajectory preview.
Trajectory validation happens before execution.
VALIDATED Rise to safe Z, cross above the holder and clamp, descend only above the target.
Safety as architecture
Not a mushroom switch added at the end.
KineticON’s safety-capable family is built around an independent safety island: a safety processor separate from the motion SoC, independent watchdog paths, dual-channel safety I/O, STO outputs, safe brake control and safe encoder interfaces on appropriate products, with safe network support such as FSoE. Certification is a product-engineering programme in its own right; the architecture accommodates it from the first board.
| Function | What it does (IEC 61800-5-2 drive safety functions) |
|---|---|
| STO Safe Torque Off | Prevents the drive from producing torque — an uncontrolled stop, stop category 0. |
| SS1 Safe Stop 1 | Monitored controlled braking, then Safe Torque Off — stop category 1. |
| SS2 Safe Stop 2 | Controlled stop with power kept on the drive; the standstill is then monitored. |
| SOS Safe Operating Stop | Monitors that a stopped axis stays within a position window while the control loop is active. |
| SLS Safely-Limited Speed | Prevents a configured speed limit from being exceeded. |
| SDI Safe Direction | Prevents motion in a direction that is not permitted. |
| SLP · SLA | Safely-limited position and safely-limited acceleration. |
| SBC · SBT | Safe control of the holding brake, and a safe test of the brake itself. |
STOP, BRAKE, POWER LOSS, STO and SAFE STOP are distinct physical events and KineticON never conflates them.
Kinematics & contouring
From a Cartesian gantry to a hexapod — made understandable.
Transforms, work, tool and fixture coordinates, kinematic chains, Jacobian-based control where required and coordinated collision awareness — with linear, circular and helical interpolation, splines and NURBS, PVT, contour mode, electronic gearing and camming, path look-ahead, jerk-limited trajectories, corner optimisation, tool-centre-point control, feed-rate override, simultaneous five-axis motion and inverse kinematics.
- Cartesian
- gantry
- H-bot
- CoreXY
- SCARA
- Delta
- articulated robot
- hexapod
- 5-axis machine
- 6-axis machine
- rotary-linear
- user-defined forward / inverse kinematics
Drive freedom · KineticON Drive™ · KineticON Verified™
The drive is not an amplifier. It is part of the machine’s nervous system.
The machine builder chooses the motor. Around that freedom sit three ideas.
Rich machine state
Current, torque estimate, bus voltage, winding and drive temperature, encoder health, following error, brake state, switching and fault history, vibration inputs and lifetime stress metrics.
Power electronics on merit
Compact single-, dual- and four-axis modules, decentralised IP-rated and cabinet drives. GaN where high switching frequency at low and medium voltage pays; SiC for higher power; silicon where it is simply better. Never a semiconductor chosen because it sounds good.
Start from known data
Motors, drives, encoders, stages, brakes and actuators characterised by Panacea: electrical data, torque constants, current limits, thermal model, default tuning, measured resonance, mechanical limits and firmware compatibility.
Know where the energy goes
One axis accelerates while another brakes. A shared DC bus with regenerative redistribution, brake-resistor management, an energy-storage interface and power-supply telemetry turns that into accounted energy instead of heat.
Beautiful because it is coherent
Machined and extruded aluminium, a serious thermal architecture, durable connectors, logically arranged ports, serviceable terminals, clear status light — and a small illuminated ON. NFC and QR device identity.
The family
Six names, one architecture.
KineticON Core
The controller.
KineticON Drive
Motor drives.
KineticON Node
Remote I/O and instrumentation.
KineticON Safe
The safety architecture.
KineticON Studio
The engineering environment.
KineticON SDK
The developer system.
Secure boot, signed firmware and configuration, hardware device identity, encrypted management channels, role-based access, an audit trail, rollback-protected A/B updates and a recovery image — and real-time control that never depends on a cloud account. No compulsory cloud. The machine belongs to its owner.
Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions
Why does a motion controller need an FPGA?
What is position-synchronised output?
What is Safe Torque Off?
How many axes can KineticON address?
Does KineticON support existing machines?
References
Sources
- EtherCAT Technology Group — distributed clocks and hardware synchronisation
- CERN — White Rabbit: sub-nanosecond timing over Ethernet
- Precision Time Protocol (IEEE 1588) — Wikipedia
- Synapticon — SS1, SS2 and SOS safe stop functions explained
- SICK — Safe Motion drive safety functions
- Aerotech — Position Synchronized Output (PSO)
- Field-programmable gate array — Wikipedia
Current literature
Trending in the field
Recent literature where precise, provable machine motion meets biology and the laboratory — retrieved from PubMed, 17 September 2026.
- Automated Biomedical Research Laboratories: Development, Current State, and a Roadmap for Adaptation into Shared Research Resources — J Biomol Tech, 2026
- Automated implementation of the SwabSeq COVID-19 diagnostic assay on the opentrons flex liquid-handling robot — Diagn Microbiol Infect Dis, 2026 Nov
- Cell-free systems as complementary Test layers for protein engineering in biofoundry workflows — Curr Opin Biotechnol, 2026 Sep 15
- Automated carousel-based electrochemical sensing toward microbiological and oncological settings — Anal Chim Acta, 2026 Sep 22
- Rapid and robust laser-frequency auto-locking using Bayesian-optimization and discrete-wavelet-transformation algorithms — Rev Sci Instrum, 2026 Sep 1
This week in the field
11 – 17 September 2026
Newest PubMed records in robotic manipulation, automated laboratories and precision control — refreshed weekly. Listing only; inclusion is not endorsement.
- A versatile dexterous robotic wrist: lightweight, modular, and pose-adaptive — Bioinspir Biomim, 2026 Sep 15
- Cell-free systems as complementary Test layers for protein engineering in biofoundry workflows — Curr Opin Biotechnol, 2026 Sep 15
- Bibliometric and knowledge-map analysis of research on robot-assisted vascular interventional surgery (2015-2025) — J Robot Surg, 2026 Sep 12
