Updated 2016-12-21 20:59:14 by SEH

What: Enhanced Machine Control
 Where: http://sourceforge.net/projects/EMC/
        http://www.linuxcnc.org/
 Description: Software that implements real-time control of equipment such as
        machine tools, robots, and coordinate measuring machines. It runs in
        real-time under Linux with the NMT rtlinux patch, and in nonrealtime
        under Solaris, and WindowsNT.
 Updated: 11/2000
 Contact: Sourceforge project page

EMC is a software system for computer control of machine tools such as milling machines, cutting machines, robots, hexapods, etc. EMC is free software with open source code.

The binary code is used most frequently via an enhanced tcl or tk shell, allowing scripting of major functions. Tk GUI interfaces (TkEMC, MINI) also allow easy use of the program.


Machinekit is a fork of EMC intended to bring the code to more platforms and more generalized architectures. It is used to create distributed systems which command and control moving things in real time. Examples of moving things already being explored are robots, quad-copters, 3D printers, and machine tools.

See also Axis