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RCI 059 · Coverage-gap audit

A category name is a promise. This one is not yet kept.

“Interfaces & Integration” describes the edges where robot components succeed or fail together: connectors, harnesses, couplers, synchronization, thermal paths. The current shelf holds ten CAN/CAN FD interface devices and one Ethernet switch. An external reviewer called the category “a USB-CAN converter shelf.” On today’s contents, that is accurate.

Published 2026-09-015 min readCatalog v0.4.15

What the layer contains today

RecordManufacturerSubcategory
USBcan Pro 2xHS v2KvaserUSB-to-CAN FD interface
Ixxat USB-to-CAN V2 professionalHMS Networks / IxxatUSB-to-CAN interface
U100PKvaserRugged USB-to-CAN FD interface
Ixxat USB-to-CAN FD compactHMS Networks / IxxatUSB-to-CAN FD interface
Kvaser Leaf v3KvaserSingle-channel USB-to-CAN FD interface
Kvaser Ethercan HSKvaserSingle-channel Ethernet-to-CAN interface
Kvaser PCIEcan HSKvaserSingle-channel PCI Express classical-CAN interface
Ixxat USB-to-CAN V2 compactHMS Networks / IxxatSingle-channel USB classical-CAN interface
VN1630AVector InformatikCAN/LIN network interface
PCAN-USB FD IPEH-004022PEAK-System TechnikUSB-to-CAN/CAN FD interface
EDS-2008-ELMoxaDIN-rail unmanaged Fast Ethernet switch

Ten of the eleven records are CAN-family interface hardware—five Kvaser devices, three HMS/Ixxat devices, one Vector and one PEAK-System—differing by channel count, host bus (USB, PCI Express, Ethernet) and classical-CAN versus CAN FD support. The eleventh is a Moxa unmanaged Fast Ethernet switch. Nothing in the layer is a connector, cable, harness, dress pack, slip ring, EtherCAT coupler, time-synchronization device, or thermal component.

Why it looks like this

CAN interface vendors publish unusually complete, stable, per-SKU documentation, which made them cheap to index to RCI’s claim-level standard. That is the inclusion bias described in RCI 061 operating on a whole category: the layer filled up where documentation was easiest, not where integration questions are hardest. USB-CAN adapters are real robot-lab equipment—four of the robot platforms in the Robot System Index use them—but they are the best-documented sliver of the integration problem, not its center.

What an honest integration layer requires

  • Connectors and cabling as exact order codes: the difference between a drawing and a part that mates, with current ratings, mating cycles and keying preserved.
  • EtherCAT and industrial-Ethernet infrastructure: couplers, junctions and managed switches with cycle-time and synchronization boundaries, not just link speed.
  • Time synchronization: PTP grandmasters, trigger distribution, camera-LiDAR sync hardware—the layer where multi-sensor robots actually fail.
  • Rotary and moving interfaces: slip rings and dress packs, where electrical, mechanical and lifecycle claims interact.
  • Cross-references into real systems: each interface record should link to at least one Robot System Index configuration that uses it, so the layer documents integration rather than adapters in isolation.

Named first targets

Three of the six zero-record debt areas on the evidence page belong to this layer, with named targets: igus chainflex CFROBOT cables as exact order codes, TE Dynamic D1000 connector part numbers and TE’s blind-mating charging connector kit, and a Moog slip-ring shortlist. Records enter only at the usual bar—exact model identity, claim-level sourcing, explicit unknowns—so the honest near-term statement is that this layer will remain small while it stops being mislabeled.

Corrections

No corrections yet. Material changes will be logged with timestamps on the Changes page.