[Blog] Inside Modern Industrial Robotics: Motor Control, Sensors, and Security

The Industrial sector is in a moment of real transformation. While automated solutions like Industrial robotics have long been sources of speculation and hype, conversations are beginning to shift towards what’s realistically deployable in today’s factories and service environments.

In a recent webinar hosted by Embedded Computing Design, experts from Lattice, Advantech, and Renesas helped cut through the noise and explore the robotics applications Industrial customers expect, the capabilities they require, and how they’re actually deployed in the field. In this blog, we’ll discuss the core capabilities of modern solutions and explore how flexible, low power Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are empowering the next generation of robotics in Industrial environments.

Delivering Real-Time Motor Control
Modern Industrial robots include various motors that dictate their movement, speed, and position. Real-time, deterministic coordination, and control over these motors is essential – especially in dynamic Industrial environments where loss of control can quickly become dangerous to both machinery and human workers.

While traditional CPUs are often limited in this area with their sequential processing model not being able to execute multiple commands in real time, FPGAs help developers overcome these limitations by offering parallel processing, enabling systems to execute multiple control tasks simultaneously.

A single Lattice FPGA can also manage multiple motors, using shared IP blocks and time-slot-based control logic to support configurations with 10 or more motors running in parallel. By combining these processing capabilities with flexible networking interfaces, including support for EtherCAT and other real-time protocols, Lattice provides developers with a unified and adaptable platform that supports a wide range of motor types and motion profiles.

These capabilities support the precision and responsiveness required by increasingly complex robotic systems and dramatically reduce reaction time. They enable fast, deterministic control behavior that helps ensure each motor responds accurately and reliably, even within highly integrated and demanding robotic environments.

Unifying Complex Sensor Networks
Most contemporary Industrial robots rely on a variety of sensors to operate effectively, with many containing more than a dozen of these components. From cameras to lidar, radar, and beyond, each sensor runs on a different interface with a unique data rate and specific physical connections. This patchwork of diverse hardware creates a significant challenge, requiring the synchronization of heterogeneous sensor inputs so that the robot can understand its surroundings without overloading the CPU and slowing system responsiveness.

Lattice addresses this complexity with FPGA-based sensor fusion capabilities that seamlessly connect multiple sensors to centralized processing platforms. These capabilities include:

• Scalable FPGA-based sensor bridging that connects diverse sensor types to compute platforms like NVIDIA IGX, Orin, and Thor, supporting bandwidth up to 25 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) for low-latency and high-throughput communication.
• Flexible sensor interfaces that allow developers to adjust and configure sensor behavior without extensive system redevelopment.
• On-device sensor fusion and preprocessing that synchronizes multi-rate data and runs near-sensor AI workloads like object detection, offloading tasks that put undue strain on the centralized chip.

This combination of bridging, flexibility, and intelligent preprocessing ensures that robots receive clean, synchronized, and enriched data from all their sensors, improving timely decision-making and advanced functionality.

Embedding Safety and Security
As Industrial robots operate in closer proximity to human workers, safety and security are crucial considerations. These devices must comply with strict functional safety standards and cybersecurity frameworks to avoid the potential physical harm and digital risk that come with failures.

Rather than facing integration challenges after deployment, developers must build safety and security considerations into robots from the start. Lattice FPGAs help developers meet these requirements through:

• Support for functional safety in alignment with standards like IEC 61508 and ISO 13849, backed by Lattice software and IP offerings that simplify compliance.
• Integrated cybersecurity capabilities aligned with IEC 62443 that enable secure communication and support frameworks like ROS 2 for safe robotic operation.
• Low power, efficient thermal management, and small form factor implementations ensure easy embedding near motors, even in the face of thermal and space constraints.
• Ease of use and mature reference designs give developers a practical path to implementing safety, security, and control features in FPGA-based systems.

Together, these capabilities help developers create high-performing systems that are compliant, secure, and optimized for real-world Industrial deployments.

Moving Beyond the Hype
Real innovation in robotics doesn’t come from hype, but from solving practical challenges: delivering precise motor control, unifying sensor data, and embedding safety and security. By leveraging low power, flexible FPGAs, developers can build robotic solutions that are prepared for real-world Industrial deployment.

To further explore modern Industrial robotics solutions, watch the full ECD webinar here. To learn how to implement real-time motor control leveraging FPGAs for your robotics design, visit our website or contact our team today.