Remote Surgery EtherCAT-UDP Gateway for Reliable Internet Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing remote surgery systems require expensive and time-consuming network setups to enable reliable communication between master and slave operation devices, limiting their use over the widely available Internet.
Innovation Solution
A telemedicine system utilizing industrial Ethernet for local connections and Internet for remote connections, converting Ethercat messages to UDP messages with custom protocol frames and timestamps for reliable data exchange, and reconverting them back to Ethercat messages for local transmission, ensuring low-cost and reliable bidirectional communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a dedicated network is established for remote surgery communication, then reliability is improved, but cost and setup time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces protocol conversion devices (gateway devices) that act as intermediaries between the industrial Ethernet network and the public Internet. These gateways translate EtherCAT messages to UDP packets with custom protocols, enabling reliable remote communication over the Internet without requiring dedicated network infrastructure. The intermediary handles protocol transformation, timestamp insertion, and data validation to maintain reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the communication protocol parameters by encapsulating EtherCAT data frames within UDP packets and adding custom protocol headers with timestamps. This parameter transformation allows the data to be transmitted over the Internet while maintaining the structured format needed for reliable reconstruction at the receiving end. The timestamp parameter is specifically added to enable sequence verification.
2Device complexity
If Ethercat messages are transmitted directly over Internet using UDP, then cost is reduced, but data reliability and sequence accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary actions by adding timestamps to UDP packets before transmission and pre-processing received packets to validate timestamps and sequences. The sending end inserts timestamps in advance, and the receiving end performs preliminary validation before further processing. This preliminary timestamp verification ensures that out-of-order or duplicate packets can be identified and handled appropriately, maintaining data reliability over the unreliable Internet.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms through timestamp verification and sequence validation. The receiving end compares timestamps of received packets with expected sequences, and can request retransmission or discard invalid packets. This feedback loop ensures that data integrity is maintained even when packets are lost, duplicated, or arrive out of order during Internet transmission.
3Reliability
If protocol conversion with timestamps is implemented, then data reliability is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the protocol conversion process into distinct functional modules: EtherCAT frame extraction, UDP packet encapsulation with timestamp insertion, timestamp validation, sequence verification, and EtherCAT frame reconstruction. Each module handles a specific aspect of the conversion, making the overall complex process manageable and maintainable. The segmentation allows independent optimization and testing of each conversion stage.
Data Source
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AI summary
A telemedicine system and a method thereof include: a first remote host receives an Ethercat message sent by a first master station, discards the Ethernet frame header of the Ethercat message, and obtains an Ethercat data frame; the first remote host encapsulates the Ethercat data frame to generate a UDP message including a UDP header and a custom protocol frame, and sends the UDP message to a second remote host, with a sending timestamp written into the custom protocol frame; a second remote host receives the UDP message, discards the UDP header of the UDP message, and obtains a data packet including a custom protocol frame and an Ethercat data frame; the second remote host obtains a valid data packet from the data packet based on the sending timestamp; the second remote host discards the custom protocol frame of the valid data packet, obtains an Ethercat data frame of the valid data packet, encapsulates the Ethercat data frame of the valid data packet to generate a target Ethercat message including a target Ethernet frame header, and sends the target Ethercat message to the second master station. This system enables low-cost and reliable remote surgery.