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Industries and Work Areas
Embedded development across three decades is cross-industry. The following nine areas reflect the topics in which I have actually worked — not what might theoretically be possible.
Whoever spends three decades in embedded development collects experience across several industries — not because that is a marketing goal, but because the tasks themselves are cross-industry. An engine controller in a chainsaw follows the same physical principles as one in a car. A camera for person detection in a vehicle uses algorithms that also occur in medical technology. An industrial bus system is technically not far from an automotive bus.
The following overview shows the nine areas in which I have realised concrete projects. It is ordered by frequency and focus — automotive comes first because that is where my career began and where the largest part of my practice took place.
Automotive
1. Automotive
Focus area since 1990 — starting at Mercedes-Benz, today serving several major automotive manufacturers and their suppliers in Germany, the UK and the USA. Experience covers engine controls, ECU testing, diagnostics, infotainment and safety-relevant subsystems.
- Engine controls (4-stroke, 2-stroke, safety functions)
- Camera systems (reversing cameras, parking assistants, person detection)
- ECU development and testing
- 77 GHz FMCW radar — test automation for an automotive supplier
- Infotainment and MOST bus simulation (see Audi project under references)
- Diagnostic concepts (UDS, ISO 14229)
- Functional safety per ISO 26262
Medical
2. Medical Technology
Experience with the development and testing of safety-critical medical devices per IEC 62304 (software lifecycle) and IEC 60601-1 (device safety). Focus on devices with critical measured values and patient-near application.
- Infusion systems (PCA, TCI)
- Cleaning and disinfection devices
- Medical data visualisation and analysis
- Interpretation algorithms for metabolic measurements (glucose, ketones) for optimising insulin dosing and carbohydrate intake
- IEC 62304 — software lifecycle
- IEC 60601-1 — device safety
Control
3. Control Systems
Embedded controls for devices, machines and vehicles — from engine controls with the hardest real-time requirements to building controllers that process real-time signals on multiprocessor hardware. The underlying principles are the same in all application fields: deterministic timing, robust signal processing and reproducible reactions to user input.
- Electronic control units (vehicles)
- Engine controls (ignition timing, injection, safety)
- Device and machine controls
- Measurement, control and regulation technology
- Building automation with multiprocessor hardware: in principle, anything that can be electrically controlled or sensed can be integrated — blinds, shutters, lighting, heating, doors, irrigation, weather sensors, motion detectors. Concretely realised: integrated control of blinds and shutters, connection of Velux roof windows via infrared radio interface without additional wiring, PC operating interface with time-controlled profiles. On request, remote access from mobile devices via direct encrypted connection to the controller — without going via servers of external providers.
- Bare-metal real-time on tight microcontrollers (see Stihl project under references)
Signal Proc.
4. Navigation and Signal Processing
Algorithms for motion capture, signal filtering and sensor data evaluation — from analogue filter stages to adaptive digital algorithms. A discipline with deep history that often makes the decisive difference in modern embedded systems.
- 3D motion capture without GPS (acceleration sensors, Kalman filter)
- Digital signal filters (FIR, window functions: Hamming, Hann, Blackman, Kaiser)
- Analogue signal filters (Chebyshev, Butterworth, active and passive)
- Real-time sensor data evaluation
- Adaptive algorithms for changing environments
Comms
5. Communication
Implementation of bus systems and radio interfaces — from hardware-near driver level to fault-tolerant transmission with Reed-Solomon coding. The focus is not only on data transmission itself but also on data organisation: data to be transmitted or stored is structured so that automatic error detection and correction become possible — whether on the radio channel or in the storage medium.
- Radio interfaces (fault-tolerant transmission)
- CAN bus, CAN FD, Ethernet, EtherCAT
- I²C, SPI, MOST, RS232
- Redundant data transmission
- Error-correcting coding (Reed-Solomon) for data transmission and storage
- Structured data organisation for automatic error detection and correction
- Chirp signals for transmission under difficult conditions
Process
6. Process Monitoring and Control Rooms
Embedded systems and software for the monitoring, control and visualisation of technical installations. Here, embedded hardware combines with web frontends and real-time data processing.
- Real-time dashboards for plant and process monitoring
- Multi-screen layouts with trend curves, alarms and history views
- Alarm and threshold logic with escalation levels
- Sensor connection and data acquisition (embedded hardware)
- Web-based operating concepts
- Multi-channel data archiving
IoT
7. IoT and Data Visualisation
Web interfaces and apps for the monitoring, control and analysis of embedded systems and measurement data. This layer determines how a technical system is perceived by the user.
- IoT dashboards and real-time monitoring (WebSocket, MQTT)
- Remote monitoring and process control
- Web-based configuration interfaces (Flask, REST API)
- Measurement data visualisation (Chart.js, interactive diagrams)
- Android apps for embedded devices (Kotlin)
Security
8. Encryption and Security
Implementation of cryptographic methods in embedded contexts — from established standard algorithms to bespoke solutions for high confidentiality requirements. Note: Above a certain encryption level, approval by the responsible supervisory authority may be required, since encryption technology may not be exported to all countries.
- AES (128/192/256 bit)
- RSA, Twofish
- Multiple-encryption for high-security applications
- Real-time-capable encryption
- Network security (VLAN, port security)
- Secure bus communication
- Signed firmware updates and secure bootloaders
QA
9. Quality Assurance
Systematic assurance of embedded systems — at hardware level, at code level and at system level. Quality assurance is not a downstream step but part of development from the beginning.
- PCB review and design review
- Code review and static analysis
- Manual tests and test automation
- Technical documentation (including video documentation)
- Calibration (current, voltage, temperature, pressure)
- Validation against requirements
- ASPICE-conformant test specification
Which Areas Often Combine
Most real projects do not fall into exactly one of the areas above but combine several. Typical combinations from practice:
- Automotive + Control Systems + Communication — classical ECU development with bus connection
- Medical Technology + Signal Processing + Quality Assurance — devices with critical measured values
- Control Systems + Process Monitoring + IoT — networked installations with remote access
- Encryption + Communication — secure data transmission in industrial environments