Robotics control electronics for autonomous and industrial machines
Motor control, sensing, safety hardware and real-time firmware, designed and manufactured as one system in Vaasa.
In short: Comtec Labs designs and manufactures control electronics for robots and autonomous machines in Vaasa, Finland: motor drives, current and position sensing, sensor and camera interfaces, safety circuits, power distribution and the embedded control firmware. Safety hardware is designed to the target performance level together with your safety engineer, and the same team takes the boards from prototype and bench test on your motors to series production.
Who this service is for
The service is for companies that build machines which move, sense and decide, and need the electronics and firmware developed and manufactured by one partner. Our robotics customers include marine, mobile-machinery and industrial automation companies. Typical applications are:
- industrial automation and robotic arms
- autonomous mobile robots (AMR) and logistics and warehouse automation
- UAV and drone systems
- inspection and maintenance robots working in demanding conditions
How a robotics electronics project runs
- Requirements. We start from the mechanics, the motors, the duty cycle and the machine safety assessment, so the electronics are sized for the real load.
- Architecture. The system is partitioned into motor drive, sensing, safety and compute blocks, and we decide what goes on one board and what is distributed over a CAN or EtherCAT bus.
- Prototype and firmware. We design and build the prototype board together with the control firmware: motor control, motion profiles, bus communication and safety supervision.
- Bench test on your motors. The boards are tested with the actual motors and loads, not only with a lab supply.
- EMC pre-compliance. Emissions and immunity are checked in-house before formal testing at an accredited laboratory.
- Pilot and series. Pilot run and series production in Vaasa, with programming and functional test on the production line.
What the control electronics cover
Robot control electronics combine six blocks on one board or a few. The table shows typical choices in each block; the right ones follow from your torque, speed, safety level and number of axes.
| Block | Typical choices |
|---|---|
| Motor drive | Gate drivers and MOSFET bridges on a 24–48 V bus, field-oriented control of BLDC and PMSM, stepper and servo motors |
| Sensing | Shunt or Hall current sensing, magnetic or optical encoders, IMU |
| Safety | Safe torque off, dual-channel emergency stop, redundant monitoring, brake control |
| Interfaces | CAN and CANopen, EtherCAT, Ethernet, RS-485, MIPI CSI-2 cameras, USB |
| Power | Bus pre-charge, reverse and overvoltage protection, regeneration handling, isolated logic supply |
| Compute and firmware | Cortex-M for control loops, Cortex-A or NPU for perception, RTOS or embedded Linux |
Our firmware work covers ARM Cortex-M from STM32, NXP, Nordic and Espressif on bare metal, FreeRTOS or Zephyr, and embedded Linux on Cortex-A and i.MX processors.
Lead times
A new robotics project can start with a fixed-price concept study of one to three weeks under NDA, which gives the architecture, the main risks, a development estimate and a unit-cost forecast. With a one-page description of the machine, you get a stage plan, a development quote and a unit-cost forecast within two weeks. Development to a verified prototype typically takes three to six months, depending on the number of axes, the safety level and how much firmware is needed.
Once the design is released and all components are in house, prototype boards are assembled in 3–5 working days, small series of up to 500 boards in 1–2 weeks and larger series in 2–3 weeks.
Development, test and production
Development and production share one site in Vaasa. Prototype boards are bench-tested on the actual motors before release, and EMC pre-compliance testing is done in-house, so problems are found before the formal test at an accredited laboratory. We build test fixtures and production test software ourselves, devices are programmed on the production line, and every series board goes through functional test on the line. Assembly runs in an ESD-protected environment with AOI on every board.
See the full equipment list, capabilities and lead times
Safety, quality and standards
- Safety-related hardware is designed to the target performance level together with your safety engineer and documented for the machine technical file.
- Certification of the machine is done by you, with a notified body where required.
- Boards are built to IPC-A-610 class 2 as standard or class 3 on request, with AOI on every board and test results stored per board.
- Formal EMC and safety tests are carried out by accredited laboratories, after in-house pre-compliance testing.
- You own the schematics, layout, firmware source and documentation, with no licence fees.
Safety is a hardware architecture
In robotics, safety cannot be added to the firmware at the end. A safe torque off path that removes gate drive power independently of the main controller, dual-channel emergency stop inputs, cross-monitoring between two controllers and a defined safe state at power-up and on fault are all schematic decisions. The required level, PL c to e under ISO 13849-1 or SIL 2 to 3 under IEC 62061, follows from the machine risk assessment, and the electronics then have to demonstrate it. That is why we bring the safety engineer into the architecture stage, not after the first prototype.
Frequently asked questions
Do you develop the control firmware too?
Yes. We write the field-oriented motor control, motion profiles, bus communication, safety supervision and the production test firmware, together with the hardware.
Can one board drive several motors?
Yes. Multi-axis boards with two to six drives are common. Beyond that, per-axis drives on a CAN or EtherCAT bus usually scale better and keep power and heat distributed.
Can you help with safety certification?
We design the safety-related hardware to the target performance level with your safety engineer and provide the documentation. Certification of the machine is done by you, with a notified body where required.
What bus voltage should a mobile robot use?
24 V suits small platforms with simple safety. 48 V gives more power with lower current, lighter cabling and lower losses while staying below the 60 V DC safety extra-low-voltage limit.
Can you add cameras and AI-based perception?
Yes. Cameras are connected over MIPI CSI-2, USB or Ethernet, and perception runs on an application processor with a neural processing unit, separated from the real-time control loops.
Related reading
- What Goes Into Robotics Control Electronics? Motor Control, Sensing, Safety and Firmware
- Nordic PCB Assembly Partner for Automation and Robotics
- How to Choose a Microcontroller or SoC for an Industrial Device: A Selection Framework
- How Is Firmware Developed for an Integrated Device? Hardware–Software Co-Design Explained
- When Does Edge AI Make Sense on an Embedded Device, and What Hardware Does It Need?
Related services
- Industrial AI and predictive maintenance electronics
- PCB design services
- PCB prototype assembly
- PCB functional testing
- PCB series and low-volume production
Discuss your robotics control electronics
Describe the machine, the motors and axes, the required safety level and the expected volumes. You get a stage plan, a development quote and a unit-cost forecast, with a named engineer as your contact.
