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Are there plans to support connecting to the live robots over the etherCAT protocol?
Some tasks ( like glue dispensing ) will require hard real-time support.
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Ethercat is one of the many protocols supported by robot controllers. If you need real time support it may be better to use vendor-specific protocols. For example, for Fanuc it would be PCDK, for KUKA it would be RSI, for Motoman it would be Motocom. These protocols are usually based on TCP/IP or UDP.
Except for most collaborative robots (such as Universal Robots), these are usually paid software options that need to be purchased from robot vendors.
