Our project partner
inomatic GmbH
inomatic GmbH has been supplying customized control solutions for special vehicle construction for over 20 years. The company develops and produces CAN bus systems, control units, sensors, and battery management components - ideal for fire departments, rescue services, and municipal vehicles.
Thanks to in-house development and production, inomatic offers robust, durable electronic solutions "Made in Germany". Close cooperation with vehicle manufacturers and a deep understanding of industry-specific requirements make it possible to implement highly flexible, customized control systems. A particular focus is placed on intuitive operability, reliability in tough everyday use, and the ability to integrate into existing vehicle architectures.
Project description
The requirements of inomatic
As a proven specialist for control systems in special and emergency vehicles, Inomatic was looking for a new, future-proof control concept in 2023. The Linux-based system used to date was increasingly reaching its limits - particularly in terms of boot speed, resource consumption and real-time behavior.
Inomatic had the following requirements for the new platform
- Fast system start: A short boot time is essential for emergency operations.
- High system performance with a reduced footprint
- Retention of existing communication technologies, in particular CAN bus and Modbus
- Maintaining plug-in compatibility with the previous system
- Modular design and adaptability to specific customer requirements
- Platform independence for future use on different hardware solutions
The solution with CODESYS
The CODESYS Runtime Toolkit turned out to be the ideal solution: it enables the customized composition of a runtime system that is precisely tailored to the requirements of Inomatic and its vehicle architecture.
Thanks to the modular structure of the toolkit, the runtime only contains the necessary components - for example control, communication via CAN and Modbus as well as digital inputs and outputs. Components such as motion control, visualization or safety were deliberately omitted in order to minimize the system size.
In addition, the system was designed for an embedded target without an operating system, which significantly reduces start-up times and makes the behaviour more deterministic. This not only improves usability, but also enables energy-efficient operation.
Benefits with the CODESYS Runtime Toolkit
- 10-fold improvement in boot speed: vehicles are ready for use much faster.
- Reuse of proven communication stacks: existing CAN and Modbus protocols could be adopted almost unchanged.
- Reduced software footprint: only required features are integrated - reducing resource consumption and complexity.
- Scalability and flexibility: the solution can be easily transferred to other vehicle types and control systems.
- Future-proof thanks to the CODESYS Automation Server: The course has been set for modern functions such as remote maintenance, OTA updates and condition monitoring - the first steps towards implementation are already underway.
CODESYS products used
