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The development for e.g. aerial platforms is a challenging job for any engineer. Besides the mechanical parts, one of the main components are the control system and components.
User-friendly HMIs that are easy to use are one of the main reasons for a buying decision. The project team has to be put all these points into consideration.
There are many more additional requirements an engineering team has to pay attention to that might not be obvious to a user at first sight. Selecting the appropriate safety-relevant components to be in compliance with the EN-13849 norm is one of them, realizing cost saving potential in terms of development time another one.
Developing a product like a HMI, suitable only for a specific aerial platform, meant in the past that significant time and monetary resources had to be allocated. Additionally, that product needed to fulfill the end users requirement to be robust and functional in a rough environment which added additional time and resources.
Especially in spring and fall, aerial platforms are used in landscaping, to cut down trees and clean out tree tops. Branches can fall down and damage a HMI which is despite precaution hardly to avoid. That implies an additional challenge to overcome: the easy change of broken modules directly in the field with minimum down-time.
Boris Zils, Product Manager for Safety Applications, has come up with an interesting concept for OEM customers that are applied and proven in the field, and get highly visible traction in the market.
