Codesys Ros2 Hot! ❲2025❳
A heavy-duty AGV requires deterministic control for safety sensors (LiDAR bumpers) and motor drives, which CODESYS manages via EtherCAT. Simultaneously, it requires ROS2 to run the Nav2 stack for dynamic obstacle avoidance, path planning, and mapping a changing warehouse floor. 2. Vision-Guided Robotic Sorting
The first test was simple: let a ROS 2 node tell a conveyor to pause if a vision node detected a misaligned board. CODESYS, always wary, demanded unequivocal safety: a hardware interlock and a watchdog that would seize control if messages failed. They implemented a heartbeat over DDS, wrapped it in a CODESYS library, and made the conveyor a cautious partner: it would accept ROS 2 commands only while the heartbeat remained steady. The result was poetry—the vision node shouted “misaligned” and the PLC’s ladder logic honored the command, the belt stilled, and a red LED blinked like a heartbeat finding a rhythm.
Step-by-Step Implementation: Building an OPC UA to ROS2 Bridge
The worlds of industrial automation and advanced autonomous robotics have historically operated on completely different planes. Industrial automation relies heavily on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) running deterministically via the IEC 61131-3 standard. Meanwhile, cutting-edge service robotics, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and artificial intelligence systems are built primarily within the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS 2) ecosystem. codesys ros2
+------------------------------------+ +------------------------------------+ | ROS2 Network | | CODESYS Environment | | [Nav2] [MoveIt] [AI/Vision] | | [IEC 61131-3 Logic] [EtherCAT] | | | | | | | | | | | +---------------------------+ | | +-------------------------+ | | | ROS2 Node / DDS | | | | PLC Runtime System | | +--+-------------+-------------+-----+ +-----+------------+------------+--------+ | | +================= COMMUNICATION ==============+ (OPC UA / MQTT / DDS) Communication Strategies Between CODESYS and ROS2
Engineers can model a complex mechanical system in ROS2 using Gazebo or Isaac Sim, while driving the virtual simulation using the exact same compiled CODESYS code that will eventually deploy to physical factory hardware. Conclusion
Ensure the OPC UA server is enabled in your PLC Device settings. A heavy-duty AGV requires deterministic control for safety
ROS 2 provides access to millions of lines of open-source code for complex tasks like SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) and computer vision.
Map IEC 61131 types (e.g., REAL , BOOL ) correctly to ROS2 message types (e.g., float32 , bool ) to avoid serialization errors.
We can expect to see more commercial off‑the‑shelf bridges, improved real‑time support in ROS 2’s DDS middleware (e.g., zero‑copy shared memory transports), and possibly a native CODESYS‑ROS2 communication library directly from CODESYS Group. Vision-Guided Robotic Sorting The first test was simple:
The CODESYS‑ROS2 integration opens the door to many practical applications:
The convergence of and ROS 2 is essential for the future of flexible manufacturing. By using a bridge, engineering teams can combine the safety and reliability of PLC-based automation with the intelligence of modern robotics platforms.