The CANopen device certification is based on the CANopen conformance test tool. The certification guarantees vendor-independent conformance of the implementations to the CANopen application layer and communication profile as base for correct functionality and possible interoperability of CANopen devices.

The CANopen devices are tested with respect to the CANopen specification version 3 or version 4, and later. The test description includes a static test, in which timing requirements are not taken into consideration. For every test a test report is generated listing all steps of the test and all errors that have occured during the test.

In a first step the EDS of the CANopen device is tested. By means of an EDS a CANopen device is described with respect to the contents of its object dictionary. The following requirements must be fullfilled by the contents of the EDS:

• Correct value ranges
• Support of mandatory entries
• References pointing to existing entries, and
• Consistancy of the EDS

In a second step the physical CANopen device is tested. This part includes:

• The test of the application layer services
• The test of the EDS against the object dictionary of the CANopen
device, and
• The verification of the network states and transitions