We develop electronics and firmware for industrial controllers, measurement systems, HV diagnostics, and industrial gateways that must operate reliably in harsh environments and support long product lifecycles. From requirements through to series production, with zero surprises in manufacturing.
Reliability is shaped by power stability, EMC exposure, limited service access, and long product lifecycles. Early engineering decisions can affect field reliability and maintainability for years after the product is released.
Hard-to-access locations leave little room for unreliable data or unstable field behaviour. Signal integrity, calibration, isolation, grounding, sensor drift, and low-level signal handling must be addressed as part of the core design to ensure accurate measurement under real operating conditions.
Industrial connectivity depends on more than adding the right interface or protocol stack. CAN, RS-485, MODBUS, Industrial Ethernet, NB-IoT, LTE-M, LwM2M, and LoRaWAN require practical experience with low-signal locations, unstable networks, interoperability constraints, and long-term device operation.
IEC 61010, IEC 62443, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act affect hardware architecture, firmware update strategy, device security, and validation planning, while in-house EMC pre-compliance helps keep a 3-month re-spin off the timeline.
175°C+ ambient temperatures, ±4 g continuous vibration, washdown, salt spray, electrical noise, and power transients must be considered from the earliest design decisions, with surge protection, wide-input power supplies, robust PCB layout, and environmental qualification planned in accordance with the IEC 60068-2 family.
Industrial and measurement systems must remain predictable when power drops, sensors fail, or communication is lost. Watchdogs, deterministic state handling, brown-out recovery, and secure OTA / remote updates help prevent minor faults from escalating into unstable behaviour, bad data, or costly field intervention.
Industrial devices need MTBF >100,000 h, multi-vendor BOM strategies, and maintainability across long product lifecycles. Component lifecycle, long-lead risks, and end-of-life exposure need to be addressed at the schematic stage, so vendor-independent alternatives are available before sourcing issues become programme-level risks.
Selected examples of specific work delivered across industrial systems.
Compact industrial electronics platform consisting of 10 PCB designs within a unified controller system, engineered for high temperatures above 70 °C, continuous vibration above 4 g, and strict reliability and compliance requirements, including IACS UE R10 and DNVGL-CG-0339. Each PCB had specific electrical and mechanical constraints, while the system as a whole required a 75% footprint reduction.
ARS delivered requirements review, risk identification, vendor-independent component strategy, environmental PoC validation, PCB design, prototype production management, firmware bring-up in parallel with hardware development, PCBA verification firmware, BSP development, staged verification, thermal cycling, environmental stress screening, in-house EMC/EMI pre-compliance, sourcing coordination, BOM alternatives, and EMS logistics under tight schedules.
Remote monitoring device for wastewater pumping stations, supervising pump operation, water levels, and critical alarms, designed for long-term unattended operation in inaccessible locations with cellular connectivity. The existing firmware was a bare-metal proof of concept and required migration to Zephyr RTOS, with scalable architecture, event-driven design, FSM-based state handling, and LwM2M implementation from scratch on a cellular modem not yet supported by Zephyr at the time.
ARS developed the complete firmware, migrated the system to Zephyr RTOS, implemented NB-IoT / LTE-M connectivity and LwM2M-based device management, set up CI/CD with automated testing and static analysis, identified critical hardware limitations, and transferred knowledge to the client’s internal team for future development.
Embedded Linux migration for a distributed energy system rollout across around 3,000 field installations. The original industrial PC + GSM module setup cost approximately £1,200 per unit, making the architecture difficult to scale commercially.
ARS performed a build-vs-buy feasibility study, including market research, conceptual custom hardware design, cost comparison, and risk evaluation across development timeline, certification, unit cost, and implementation effort. After researching off-the-shelf solutions, ARS selected a Siemens SIMATIC IOT2020-based platform as the lower-risk alternative to custom hardware, ARS migrated the existing software application to a Yocto Linux environment. The work included Modbus integration, Perl runtime support, platform adaptation, and validation, reducing the per-unit installation cost from approximately £1,200 to £260.
Battery-powered industrial IoT tracker and monitoring gateway for long-term autonomous operation on machines, assets, and distributed industrial equipment. The device is designed for non-powered or difficult-to-access assets, extreme weather conditions from -20 °C to +85 °C, cellular IoT connectivity, OTA updates, sensor integration, and continuous field visibility. The design integrates NB-IoT communication with a BG95 modem, GPS, dual SIM support, dual antennas, accelerometer, temperature sensor, RTC, external flash memory, LTO battery supply, dual boost converters, One-Wire, and RS485 interfaces.
ARS reviewed the existing hardware concept, identified critical design issues, proposed concrete improvements, and validated key solutions before integration into the final design. The work included schematic redesign, PCB layout optimization for signal integrity and harsh-environment reliability, design validation, and complete manufacturing documentation for rapid prototyping.
Measurement tool for professional workshop use on electric vehicle high-voltage systems up to 1500 V. The device verifies de-energized state through absence-of-voltage checks, equipotential bonding measurement, and insulation resistance testing, supporting safe service and repair workflows aligned with IEC 61010 requirements.
ARS developed firmware, implemented and tested multiple measurement modes, created Qt/C++ GUI test applications, added battery charging monitoring and control, enabled Bluetooth Low Energy remote control, and prepared technical documentation for measurement workflows and workshop use.
Deep domain experience with EMC-aware design, robust power architectures, industrial connectivity, and in-house equipment for EMC and environmental validation.
Let's discuss your requirements and determine technical fit.
We'll review your product context, key technical risks and the fastest path to production.