CAN in Automation

CAN in Automation (CiA) is the international users' and manufacturers' organization that develops and supports CAN-based higher-layer protocols. About 600 companies from all over the world have joined the non-profit organization. CAN specifications are developed within CiA interest groups (IG) in cooperation with employees of the member companies.

The working group for the higher layer protocol CAN Application Layer (IG CAL) has been inactive for many years. The one for the higher layer protocol CANopen (IG CANopen) is still active, as is the IG CAN FD (CAN with flexible data rate).

The interest groups manage their related special interest groups (SIG). These special interest groups (SIG) on the one side work on the standardization of devices, e. g. input/ output devices, electric drives. On the other side standardization is done on the application layer, e. g. construction machines, lift control, healthcare and many others.

CiA member companies actively support development of the CAN FD protocol, which allows higher data rates in a part of the message. Moreover, the data field was extended (from 8 Byte in maximum with classical CAN to up to 64 Bytes with CAN FD). CAN FD is an ISO standard (2nd ed ISO 11898-1 CAN FD) now.

CiA representatives support all international standardization activities (ISO, IEC, CEN, and Cenelec), dealing with CAN. Moreover, CiA publishes the technical magazine CAN Newsletter (downloadable PDF-file) as well as the CAN Newsletter Online.

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