Better suited for high-speed motion control and feedback loop closure than other CAN based networks. High reliability, efficient use of network bandwidth, power available on the network. Acceptance limited outside of Europe.
Protocol is complex and somewhat involved from developers point of view.
In CANopen there are different methods specified to achieve real-time communications. One of the important functions is the fragmentation of data blocks larger than 8 bytes. The transport protocol uses confirmed services to guarantee that the communication profile layer correctly receives configuration data. The CANopen communication profile makes products from different vendors interoperable. Because CANopen is based on CAN, the communication profile provides event-driven process data transmission, which reduces communication as much as possible.