System Requirements#
Hardware Requirements#
Compute Platform:
Component |
Minimum |
Recommended |
|---|---|---|
CPU |
x86_64 or ARM64 (arm64) |
Intel Core i7 or NVIDIA Jetson Orin/Thor |
RAM |
4 GB |
8 GB or more |
Storage |
10 GB free |
20 GB free (including ROS2 + MoveIt2) |
GPU |
Not required for base operation |
NVIDIA GPU with CUDA for Isaac cuMotion |
WMX Motion Control Engine#
The WMX motion control engine is a high-performance, high-accuracy, real-time motion control platform developed by MOVENSYS. It provides deterministic servo control over EtherCAT fieldbus and serves as the hardware abstraction layer between ROS2 and physical servo drives.
Key features:
Real-time EtherCAT master – manages cyclic communication with servo drives at deterministic update rates
Multi-axis coordination – supports synchronized motion across 6+ servo axes with cubic spline interpolation (
CSplinePos)Shared-memory architecture – multiple ROS2 nodes connect to the same WMX engine instance through independent device handles, bridging the non-real-time ROS2 domain with the real-time WMX engine
Hardware abstraction – provides a unified C++ API (
CoreMotion,AdvancedMotion,Io,Ecat,WMX3Api) so ROS2 nodes remain robot-agnostic; only configuration files differ between robots
The WMX runtime must be installed at /opt/wmx3/ before building or
running the WMX ROS2 packages. See Install WMX ROS2 for verification
steps.
Note
Root (sudo) access is required at runtime. The WMX motion control engine and EtherCAT communication require kernel-level access to the network interface.
Supported Robot Models and Platforms#
Model |
DOF |
Payload |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Dobot CR3A |
6 |
16.5 kg |
Fully supported. Configuration files and WMX parameters included. |
Dobot CR5A |
6 |
25 kg |
Tested only in simulation and hardware-in-loop |
The architecture is robot-agnostic for any 6-DOF manipulator with EtherCAT servo drives.
Platform |
Architecture |
Ubuntu Version |
ROS2 Distro |
Model |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop PC |
x86_64 |
22.04 LTS (Jammy) / 24.04 LTS (Noble) |
Desktop with NVIDIA RTX 5070 / 5090 |
Simulation and HIL |
|
Intel IPC |
x86_64 |
22.04 LTS (Jammy) / 24.04 LTS (Noble) |
Advantech UNO-258 |
Edge AI platform |
|
NVIDIA Jetson Orin |
arm64 |
22.04 LTS (Jammy) |
Advantech MIC-713 / MIC-733ao |
Edge AI platform |
|
NVIDIA Jetson Thor |
arm64 |
24.04 LTS (Noble) |
Advantech MIC-743 |
Edge AI platform |
The C++ standard required is C++17 (set in CMakeLists.txt).
EtherCAT Network Interface:
Dedicated Ethernet NIC for the EtherCAT fieldbus (cannot be shared with regular network traffic)
The EtherCAT port connects directly to the first servo drive in the daisy chain
Warning
The EtherCAT Ethernet port is not a standard TCP/IP connection. Do not configure it with a regular IP address. The WMX engine controls this interface at the raw Ethernet level.