Hardware

CAN Bus

CAN Bus (Controller Area Network) is a robust serial communication protocol, originally developed by Bosch for automotive systems, that lets microcontrollers and devices exchange prioritized messages over a shared differential twisted pair without a host computer. In robotics it is widely used to command motor controllers and read encoder or sensor data, with classic CAN reaching 1 Mbps and CAN FD extending payloads and bitrates. Its arbitration scheme guarantees deterministic priority-based delivery.

Why it matters for physical AI

Actuator command rates and latency over the bus set a hard floor on control frequency; understanding CAN bandwidth limits matters when scaling to high-DOF humanoids where dozens of joints share the same bus.