Rugged Tablet Computer

Make! or Buy after all?

Customer's Challenge

The equipment of our customer is used in harsh field work, so where standard electronics breathes it's last very fast. For their control and visualization a platform was to be developed which supports specialized customer interfaces and controls. The requirements were particularly demanding, especially related to protection from water jets, sunlight readability and fall on a hard surface from great heights.

Outcome

Based on this data, particularly the risk estimation, the customer could decide for a „ruggedized” standard tablet PC, which is modified by the manufacturer accordingly. This meant no development work for us, but the customer could bring his optimum solution to the market.

Implementation

Together with our partners for mechanical engineering we have performed a detailed system design phase. This phase consisted of the formulation of a technical specification ("Pflichtenheft"), the evaluation of various solutions and their evaluation with respect to development effort, unit cost and risks. In doing so, we also considered solutions based on COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) equipment.

For the tablet, initially a platform based on notebook-processors was evaluated, which together with screen, controls and battery was packaged in a shock- and water-proof housing. During the system design this became more and more a complete PC, so that we extended our search outside of our original mandate to commercial ruggedized tablets and their modification possibilities.

One of these tablets, modified by the manufacturer, ultimately proved to be the optimal solution for the client.