Non-Destructive Testing

Low-cost, miniature X-ray solutions have vast applications in mining, industrial, military, medical imaging, and many other industries. ICS has helped bring these to life.

ICS Helps Build Industrial X-Ray System for Materials Analysis

Portable X-ray technology is transforming industry by making materials analysis and imaging easier and more affordable. One company wanted to take the technology a step further by developing a miniature turnkey X-ray solution for industrial uses, from mining to recycling.

Challenge

For a new generation of their highly acclaimed handheld analysis device, the company wanted to use Qt/QML and embedded Linux as the means to control the sophisticated data acquisition hardware. They also wanted to provide users with an intuitive, easy to use touchscreen interface.

And they wanted to complete the project on an aggressive schedule. Mandatory compliance with a variety of safety regulations that limited developer access to the hardware made this requirement quite challenging.

Solution

Using wireframes and visual assets provided by the customer’s UX team, ICS developed the QML user interface (UI). Using C++ and Qt, the team created the hardware-agnostic part of the application backend, which allowed for test-runs of the UI in a desktop environment without the need for the actual embedded hardware at hand.

The ICS team also designed and implemented an acquisition data storage solution, together with an efficient communication protocol, and helped the customer with board support package configuration. Following an agile-style planning and review process, the ICS team kept the customer up-to-date on the implementation status of each feature, and provided comprehensive documentation.

Results

ICS successfully completed this project with just a few on-site visits over the course of several months by adapting to the customer’s requirements, pace and schedule, and providing well-timed assistance regarding architectural, design and implementation choices. Quickly assembling and effectively managing remote teams allowed ICS to deliver all planned components on time despite the aggressive schedule.