The Design and Deployment of Cross-Platform User Interface for the Analysis, Control and Management of Disparate Embedded Systems

Embedded computers contribute to almost every aspect of 21st century living, from communication and transport to utilities and manufacturing. With such a prevalence of these systems, the need to efficiently monitor, analyse and control them is paramount. Often a bespoke software application is used, but by using a general purpose application, less resources are required. Several commercial and free software utilities are available which can be used to meet this need to some extent, however most are designed for specific usecases or contain a number of deficiencies which makes their use difficult.
As such, a graphical user interface (GUI) application was produced which aimed to meet this need. The Python programming language was utilised alongside the Qt framework, resulting in a cross-platform application. The software package was designed to be modular, allowing parts of the application to be re-used when a full-featured GUI was not required. A key feature of the application was the ability to define data protocols to extract individual data fields from a steam of data, and construct output data from user-entered values. In addition, a flexible GUI was created, allowing the user to display the data in various formats, such as textual or graphical, simultaneously.
The application produced made good strides in meeting this need, and received positive feedback from users. Some minor performance improvements were identified, however the application generally performed smoothly and efficiently. It is envisaged that through increased usage of suitable, performant and intuitive generic tools such as the one produced, the efficient use of human, time and financial resources used for developing and monitoring embedded systems can be greatly improved.