Firmware upgrade method, slave station of robot, and machine readable storage medium

A slave station of a robot comprising a master station and at least one slave station, each of the at least one slave station comprising:

• at least one chip comprising a flash memory;
• wherein the master station and the at least one slave station are electronically coupled to an ethernet for control automation technology (EtherCAT) bus of the robot, the at least one slave station communicates with the master station via the EtherCAT bus, the flash memory is partitioned into a plurality of areas, the plurality of areas comprise a first storage area, a second storage area, and a third storage area, the first storage area and the second storage area are independent of each other and have different functions, a firmware of the slave station runs in the first storage area, and the third storage area is configured to store executable program instructions which when executed cause the slave station to perform a method comprising:
• in response to a firmware upgrade instruction sent by the master station, receiving a new firmware corresponding to this firmware upgrade from the master station via the EtherCAT bus, and storing the new firmware in the second storage area;
• restarting the slave station, after the new firmware is received;
• and
• copying the new firmware stored in the second storage area to the first storage area and executing the new firmware in the first storage area at startup;
• wherein the executable program instructions comprise a boot loader of the slave station which when executed cause the slave station to perform the step of copying the new firmware stored in the second storage area to the first storage area and executing the new firmware in the first storage area at startup.

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing executable program instructions which when executed cause a slave station of a robot to perform a method comprising:

• in response to a firmware upgrade instruction sent by the master station of the robot, receiving a new firmware corresponding to this firmware upgrade from the master station via an ethernet for control automation technology (EtherCAT) bus of the robot, wherein the master station and the at least one slave station are electronically coupled to the EtherCAT bus, and the non-transitory machine readable storage medium is partitioned into a plurality of areas, the plurality of areas comprise a first storage area, a second storage area, and a third storage area configured to store a boot loader of the slave station, the first storage area and the second storage area are independent of each other and have different functions;
• storing the new firmware in the second storage area;
• restarting the slave station after the new firmware is received;
• and
• copying the new firmware stored in the second storage area to the first storage area and executing the new firmware in the first storage area at startup;
• wherein the executable program instructions comprise the boot loader of the slave station stored in the third storage area which when executed cause the slave station to perform the step of copying the new firmware stored in the second storage area to the first storage area and executing the new firmware in the first storage area at startup.