Industrial software is used to plan and manage production, logistics, finance, and customer relations.
The process of creating software applications has its own characteristics, and the apps themselves may have a particular set of functions.
Tasks that industrial applications help solve
Software applications collect and process data, provide statistics, and control production processes in the mining, processing, energy, and manufacturing industries.
Industrial applications can help with solving the following issues:
- Keeping equipment in good working order and avoiding unplanned downtime
Industrial software applications help plan preventive maintenance, considering the wear of equipment, manufacturer recommendations, and the existing production schedule.
- Resource consumption optimization
Do you want to save on raw materials, packaging, energy, and labor costs and improve the efficiency of your enterprise? Are you searching for ways to improve the quality of your products? Are you looking for an effective way to prevent theft in the enterprise?
Industrial software can collect and process data, monitor the efficient use of resources, automate processes, and even prevent theft.
Integra Sources has developed a software and hardware complex for a food manufacturer. The complex consists of devices attached to the production equipment.
Fitted with temperature and humidity sensors, accelerometers, and gyroscopes, it records equipment conditions and transfers data to the server via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or GSM around the clock.
The Qt cross-platform mobile app, connected to the web portal, collects information from the devices, generates statistics, and sends notifications about indicators beyond permissible limits.
Users can also set allowable ranges of values in the app.
Using applications on their phones and tablets, employees can track the operation of the equipment and make timely decisions from anywhere in the workshop.
By controlling and preventing sudden fluctuations in the measured parameters, the company has been able to achieve production process optimization and significant energy savings. The quality of products has also improved.
- Quality control
Quality control applications can be based on artificial intelligence technology to monitor production processes or detect flaws and other inconsistencies.
At the request of a manufacturer of precision products, a team of specialists developed an HMI application to detect marking inconsistencies.
The task of the application was to check the conformity of the product and its label using computer vision technologies.
When a defect is found, the app displays a message. An incorrectly labeled part can be removed immediately.
- Safety control
With the help of software applications, employees can undergo safety training, keep a record of certificates, and monitor compliance with safety rules and regulations.
Our company has developed a wrist device with a help button for chemical plant workers. Employees working with hazardous chemicals should wear gadgets on their wrists.
In the case of an emergency, an employee can send a distress signal, which is transmitted via LoRa or Bluetooth to the nearest gateway. The built-in accelerometer helps detect the fall of a worker.
Obtaining devices’ location data by a desktop application
The server calculates the exact location of the employee using the gateway data. The C++ desktop application displays data transmitted over Wi-Fi to an internal server.
What should be considered when developing industrial applications?
Applications built for the needs of the industry should strictly comply with international standards and be compatible with production equipment and other enterprise software.
Industrial application development has its own distinctive characteristics.
When developing applications for industrial use, you need to keep some points in mind.
Languages
The choice of programming language is significant, as the application must work reliably for a long time.
Also, the app should be integrated with already working software.
Time
Often, industrial applications run in real-time, so crashes and freezes are unacceptable.
Simulation
Simulation tools come to the rescue when developers don't have access to the target hardware to test the application.
For a software and hardware complex in the mining industry, developers have created a cross-platform Qt application that receives data from sensors located on remote devices.
As the developers can't test the app connection with sensors due to the remoteness of the customer's equipment, so they have created a device emulator program that simulates the operation of a peripheral device. Using an emulator app, developers managed to test a cross-platform app.
What Are The Features of Industrial Applications?
Custom software is used in mining, processing, and manufacturing industries to optimize production processes, automate tasks, and improve internal communication.
These are the most common customer requirements when developing applications for industrial automation solutions:
- Software reliability,
- Data security,
- Speed and efficiency,
- A reasonable cost,
- Ease of installation and use,
- Effective data management,
- Integration with internal and external systems,
- Cross-platform capabilities.
The most common requirements for building manufacturing applications
Software solutions for industrial enterprises should be fully integrated into everyday work and bring meaningful benefits.
The advantages of industrial app development for the enterprise are as follows:
- Optimal industry-specific IT solutions made precisely for the needs of a particular business;
- Continuous scalability and upgradability of the solution;
- Short time to market;
- Data and applications are under customer control.
Cross-platform solutions help companies operate more efficiently. By receiving time-critical data on smartphones, tablets, and computers, employees make quick decisions and adjustments to the production process.
Cross-Platform Capabilities of Industrial Applications
Using cross-platform tools, developers can customize one application for different operating systems and get certain benefits:
- Application development takes less time and costs less;
- Fewer tests are required when developing cross-platform applications compared to native.
- Applications have the same (or close to that) interface for different platforms.
Depending on the purpose and scope of the project, programmers use various frameworks and toolkits to develop cross-platform applications.
The C++ Qt cross-platform framework provides industrial app development in a short time. The framework has a large community of developers that help solve problems and answer questions of interest.
C and C++ are among the most widely used languages for software in mechanical engineering, metalworking, manufacturing, and automotive.
C++ has high performance and reliability. C++ applications can run on embedded systems, IoT, and equipment for years without issues, freezes, or crashes.
According to Statista, C and C++ are among the top ten most used programming languages among developers in 2022.
The table shows the most commonly used programming languages among developers worldwide as of 2022.
The Internet of Things requires high performance and high-speed processing of large amounts of data. C++ allows engineers to get the best performance out of the hardware.
The Grand View Research and Statista report that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market will grow more than fivefold from 2020 to 2028, reaching $1.11 trillion.
The chart shows the growth in the size of the global Industrial Internet of Things market from 2020 to 2028 (in billions of U.S. dollars)
No manufacturing industry can do without embedded systems and IoT devices in their production processes. Given the popularity of C++ for industrial software for embedded systems, IoT, and hardware, the demand for C++ and Qt development will only increase.
Applications for industrial solutions have specific areas of use, such as planning, monitoring, and remote control. To learn more about where industrial applications are used and what to avoid when developing them, read the original article on our company blog.
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