We have seen automation changing the landscape of factories and manufacturing well before the rampage of pandemics in the past decades. With the unemployment rate high at the moment and shortage of labor likely to continue in a foreseeable future, human and machine collaboration keep advancing, slowly but steadily, to become the new norm of modern manufacturing. While productivity gains through collaborative operation, concerns of potential risks are growing as well. More attention is given to the safety measures, functional safety to be precise, of a collaborative workplace. For cobots designed to work in close proximity to human erparts, more regulations and standards are underway to build up safe robotic environments. NexCOBOT understands developing a collaborative operating space  the ground up is a daunting task. SCB 100 has thus come into play to the aid of the developer community.

SIL2 compliant, SCB 100 brings a shortcut to collaborative solution development, facilitating the entire process by offering a worry-free platform for the developers to build their safety solutions on. Since all board-level compliances have been adhered to, the rest of the certifications yet to be identified are all project-wise. This further diminishes the uncertainties in the developing process and is practically a boost to performance.

Newly Configured Core: IoT-Enhanced

Intel Atom^® x6427FE processor, a brand new core optimized for IoT applications, empowers SCB 100 with an all-around functional safety package, covering hardware, software as well as safety documentation, for all collaboration workplaces. Intel^® Safety Island along with Intel^® Slim Bootloader with Pre-OS checker offers double failure preventions by design to enhance protection level system boot-up.

FSoE Ready: Safe Data on a Single Platform

FSoE (FailSafe over EtherCAT) enables the transfer of safety-critical control data through EtherCAT, incorporating control and safety data into a single communication system. This significantly saves the time and efforts of the development team since the standardization makes modifying and expanding the safety architecture simpler and more flexible. The enhanced connectivity to I/O and sensors along with the greatly improved quality of communications between devices, in turn, grants customers enormous value for waiving the lengthy certification time, typically 12 to 18 months.

ROBASafe: Built for Comprehensive Safety

To make every collaborative workspace fully functional safety compliant, NexCOBOT has a more ambitious blueprint. Extending protections motion control to auxiliaries, covering safety devices, I/O devices, safety sensors as well as safety teach pendants, NexCOBOT aims to build a comprehensive safety network. A safety utility software is also part of the ecosystem, integrating status checkup mechanisms and customized motion controls to increase protection as well as usability.

Main Features

• Compliant to IEC-61508, SIL2, and ISO 13849, Cat 3 PLd2
• Intel Atom^® x6427FE processor
• EtherCAT slave support
• 12-channel input/4-channel output safety I/O
• HDMI support
• Supports 2 x DDR4 SO-DIMM, up to 32 GB
• Supports 4 x Intel^® GbE ports, 6x USB 2.0/3.0, 2x COM, 1 x mini-PCIe

Ordering Information

SCB 100 (P/N: TBD)

Mini ITX board with functional safety