Web App For Robotics Manufacturer

Intuitive Web App For Robotics Manufacturer

How crafting a web app with an easy-to-grasp interface and flexible architecture empowered a manufacturer of warehouse driverless forklift systems to unlock new value-creation opportunities and reach SMB customers.

Industry:
Logistics, Manufacturing

Enterprise Automation

UX and Design

Web Development

MVP Development

Software Product Development

Home / Logistics

Business challenge

Under-automated or under-digitized intralogistics inevitably affects a company’s profits. However, sometimes the bottlenecks aren’t that obvious, and even organizations with warehouse-specific software and robotics in place struggle to achieve the much-coveted outcomes of intelligent automation.

The issue may lie in having overcomplicated software designed for tech-savvy users that holds down the company’s capabilities in efficient control and optimization of the goods flow within a manufacturing facility, warehouse, or distribution center.

For example, navigating the driverless forklift systems in small spaces is quite a challenge, as such robots are usually designed for large warehouses. The equipment can neither go near fire exits nor stop near them by default. However, following these settings is tricky in small spaces with little room for maneuvering. Hence, when the robot has no other way than to make a path near the fire exit, it stops before reaching it. Such cases require manual human input to restart the system with an updated route.

Our client, Bleichert, an automation machinery manufacturer, wanted to address two pain points of their customers seeking warehouse robotics:

‘By engineers, for engineers’ approach in designing the software

Lack of targeted solutions for small and midsize businesses (SMB) in the market overloaded with enterprise-grade products

To reach SMB customers and provide them with user-friendly software for warehouse robotics, they decided to broaden their offering with an innovative model of their driverless forklift systems that move loads autonomously by following a pre-configured circuit. Bleichert partnered with NODE Robotics and integrated their software modules into the experimental forklift. However, they needed a reliable tech ally to create a web app with an easy-to-grasp interface for warehouse operators and managers.

Instinctools, with its comprehensive expertise shored up by a set of ISO certifications, filled the bill perfectly. Our dedicated team created an MVP with interactive features for the demo presentation at LogiMat – the International trade show for intralogistics solutions – in just seven weeks.

Solution

When reaching out to *instinctools, the client specified their requirements for the future application.

Architecturally significant requirements (ASRs) included:

Accessibility via common browsers, such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc. with an identical look and feel
Flexible architecture to support and manage multiple robots in the future
Real-time updates of a robot mission

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) encompassed:

Quick and easy navigation with the rule of thumb “max three levels to reach the goal”
Less than 0.4 sec response to the user input
Color-coded interface to simplify operators’ work and avoid any possible costly mistakes

Detailed documentation empowered us to jump into development right away. Our software architects started with establishing a robust tech stack.

Deciding on a tech stack

We zeroed in on the client’s requirements to shape an easy-to-maintain tech stack for the web app development.

Seamless compatibility with NODE OS. Bleichert already installed the autonomy OS for mobile robots on the experimental forklift system to handle map management and interact with the robot’s systems and sensors. Since the operational system with related plugins uses Python, we suggested sticking to this programming language and FastAPI framework for server development for the sake of tech stack consistency.

Fast user interface response times. Besides ensuring the mandatory ease of use for the warehouse operators, we had to take care of the app’s interface speed. Our frontend developers suggested going with a single-page application (SPA) using React JS for user interface development, as the framework’s component-based architecture and virtual DOM allow crafting UI with lightning-fast render times. By leveraging React JS development services, we ensured optimal performance and a seamless user experience.

Here’s the high-level scheme of the future web app.

Taking into account long-term usage scenarios from the onset

The MVP was tailored to user interaction with one robot (Master Robot) within a pre-configured environment. However, outlining the long-term project vision at the early stages is a best practice our team follows to eliminate head-scratchers in the future and enable a hitch-free development process.

Therefore, in our conversations with the client, we discussed two strategies their customers can choose from in the future when the app will operate multiple robots (Master Robots and Servant Robots).

Seamless compatibility with NODE OS

Such an approach provides end users with a single point of control for all forklift systems within the warehouse. However, the main drawback of this method is its high dependence on the Master robot. In case of its malfunctions, Servant robots won’t be able to perform their tasks.

The app runs on each of the Servant robots with one Master robot for covering managing tasks

In this case, Servant robots are highly independent, eliminating the risk of a work stoppage due to the issues with the Master robot, but high-level management becomes trickier.

The bone of the architecture at the heart of the web app is its flexibility. It can be tailored to either of these two options, depending on the client’s customers’ feedback on the innovative forklift model.

Engineering and designing a user-friendly web app

Moving forward according to our Delivery Framework, we proceeded with iterative development, covering user roles, robot management, and more.

User roles within the app

The system has authorization and authentication mechanisms, but they aren’t mandatory, and non-authorized users can access the web app. Thus, we provided two modes within the system:

Basic user, designed for the rank-and-file warehouse operators with no authorization required
Key user, accessible only by authorized employees, for high-level warehouse operators and managers

However, the capabilities of authorized and unauthorized users greatly vary. As you can see on a high-level app vision, Basic users can only view the list of existing robot missions and launch them, while Key users are allowed to create new routes and missions, add restrictions, view the history, check the robot’s status, etc.

Now, let’s dive deeper into the robot-related features.

Robot mission management

Each mission has the following attributes:

Name
Starting point of interest (POI)
Destination POI

A Key user can add any mission from the list to the queue by clicking the “Play” button. The mission will appear at the last position after a five-second pause, during which the list of missions is locked. Then, the operator will be notified whether queuing the mission was successful or failed.

There are four mission statuses:

Active
Queued
Completed
Deleted

A Key user can remove any missions in the queue except the active ones.

Both Basic and Key users get toast notifications about events related to the robot’s operation. The alert about the robot charging is shown until the process is completed.

The opportunity to pause the robot is available from any application page for both roles.

One of the client’s fundamental requirements was tracking a robot mission in real time, so we set the execution time to update every second.

A Key user can change the order of queued missions.

Mission removal is available for a Key user. They need to click the appropriate menu item and follow the additional action confirmation.

Only a Key user can access the History of missions and filter them by date:

Today
Week
Month

All missions are shown by default.

That’s what the clickable prototype looks like.

Dashboard for monitoring robot condition

The complex interface wasn’t the only reason the client’s customers considered previous forklift systems not user-friendly enough. They also strived to have simple visualizations of the robot’s status to detect and fix machine maintenance issues before they snowball.

A dashboard with widgets and actual information about the robot’s state empowered users to switch to the ‘danger foreseen is half avoided’ principle and, thus, decrease machinery maintenance costs.

Writing a test emulator for the app

The client’s web app is an example of an embedded solution that strongly depends on the hardware. In such cases, software testing takes a special place in SDLC. There are two ways to perform it:

Running the app directly on the robot. However, this was a no-go option, as the client wanted to fine-tune the new model’s sensors before the trade show. Transporting the forklift back and forth between their headquarters in Osterburken and our development hub in Warsaw would totally mess up the project’s timeline.

Testing software on an emulator. The client didn’t have an emulated environment that imitates the robot’s behavior, so we offered our help and built it.

As we were working on the emulator ourselves, the increased project scope could have put the *instinctools team in a tight spot, given the strict deadline. However, we managed to deliver the robust version of the app on the dot. Moreover, our emulator served as a temporary substitute for the solution’s service for the robot coordination, making it possible for the client to showcase the trailblazing forklift model at the trade show.

Shaping the post-MVP backlog

Satisfied with the MVP results, the client decided to proceed with our partnership at the post-MVP stage, during which our team will broaden the functionality related to these three areas:

User management
Mission improvements
Mission assignment

Before

Complicated app meant for employees with an engineering background
Lack of visualization
Partly manual control over a forklift robot on-site

After

Intuitive app sets new standards in user-friendliness of robotics management software
Easy-to-grasp dashboards
Fully remote control of the forklift robots

Business value

Trailblazing warehouse solution for the SMB segment
Highly user-friendly UI suitable for non-technical staff makes the software stand up from the crowd of solutions designed for tech-savvy employees
Simplified software support due to a homogeneous tech stack
Interface with no more than three clicks to reach any feature
Less than 0.4 sec response to the user input
Real-time updates of the robot missions
Easy-to-use dashboards for tracking a robot’s state
Decreased robot maintenance cost thanks to detecting malfunctions before they turn into serious issues

Client’s testimonial

Quality Management System

SaaS Quality Management App For a Leading Maritime Software Provider

How broadening their industry-specific software pool with a quality management system (QMS) for maritime companies allowed a world-class SaaS software provider to win new customers.

Industry:
Ecommerce

Web Development

SaaS Development

Software Product Development

Enterprise Automation

Home / Logistics

Business challenge

Is there a more common and widespread bottleneck than paper-based workflows? Despite the seemingly ubiquitous focus on technology-enabled business transformation, non-digital-born companies across industries still depend on paper documentation.

Such an approach leads to flawed records, delayed updates, etc., which overcomplicates the quality management process. When quality-related debacles take place at the enterprise scale, companies have to pay for them, not rarely with something more valuable than money — their reputation.

This was the weak spot our client aimed to tackle to help their customers move quickly and confidently down the digitalization path. A world-class maritime software provider with several solutions for streamlining industry-specific processes contacted *instinctools to widen their offering with a cloud-based SaaS quality management system (QMS).

What percentage of organizations depend on paper-based processes?

*Source: Forrester, Digital Documents Necessity

What issues did maritime enterprises face while managing quality documents mostly manually?

Our client wanted to fix these problems with robust software that spans quality, health, safety, and environment (QHSE) processes by:

Digitizing

and streamlining all document-related operations, including creation, editing, etc.

Ensuring

compliance with general and maritime-specific standards

Providing

a centralized repository with role-based access to allow users to work with quality documents anywhere, anytime, without compromising security

Automating

quality management workflows, such as authoring, reviewing, approving, notifying, etc., to free employees from mundane rule-based tasks and eliminate the possibility of human error

Fostering

transparency of quality management processes thanks to the detailed audit trail

Solution

The client has been delivering solutions for enterprises using Microsoft 365 products. Therefore, our dedicated team went with Microsoft Azure as a cloud repository for the QMS. The system also needed a metadata-driven document management platform to automate document creation workflows. We’ve chosen M-Files with out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Azure.

Packing the QMS with broad functionality

Banking on the rich off-the-shelf functionality for their customers was at the core of the client’s strategy. Therefore, we’ve crafted the software with multiple out-of-the-box modules that go beyond simple document creation and review and cover regulatory compliance, audits, and risk management tasks.

Document creation module

Users can create a document using templates or drag and drop existing Word, Excel, PPTX, HTML, and PDF files directly into the system.

Review and approval module

Drafted documents are sent for review or approval.

If there are several reviewers and approvers, they can collaborate on document editing using track changes.

Authors can set a deadline for reviews or approvals.

Assigners have real-time visibility into the state of reviews and approvals.

Assignees get email auto notifications about the documents waiting for their review or approval. Assigners also get auto alerts about suggestions and comments in the documents and when assignees mark them as reviewed or approved.

All users have personal dashboards as an easy way to access the files for review and approval, last modified documents, etc., just by clicking on the corresponding section.

Also, all users can look for documents across the system with an intuitive search bar.

It provides the possibility to search for exact words matching the titles and content of the files.

Regulatory compliance module

This module is the heart of the whole system. The QMS is compliant with the following standards by default:

Audit module

The client wanted to ensure complete traceability across the system, as keeping the company’s documentation in order is one of the success factors contributing to smooth external audits. Therefore, we crafted a system where any document changes are recorded, and users have a time-stamped audit trail and the history of each document at their fingertips.

While the QMS always suggests the most recent file version, all roles have access to the previous ones. Document owners can set up auto retirement of the document’s previous versions when the new one is released.

Internal audits and regulatory checks also become a breeze for maritime organizations with this QMS.

Our development team provided a complementary document template package for:

Creating audit plans
Scheduling internal audits
Assigning responsible personnel and reviewers

Both authors, assignees, and reviewers can attach evidence related to the audit findings, making it easier to unearth and fix alarming issues internally.

Risk management module

The QMS we’ve developed enables companies to foresee dangers and prevent or minimize their negative impact

Connect information within the quality management system

Users can connect risk management documents with audit data, records related to suppliers and products, and other items within the system to enhance traceability of potential hazards.

Identify possible hazards with a risk management matrix

Spotting risk-prone issues as early as possible helps cover them before they snowball into severe threats and cause noticeable accidents. The risk management matrix is color-coded so that users can immediately see if there are any catastrophic and critical events that have to be addressed ASAP.

Schedule periodic risk assessments

Risk assessment is an area with high automation potential, and we didn’t miss the chance to take full advantage of it, empowering users to set periodic risk assessments within any time frame.

Ensuring integrability with any corporate systems

Our software developers wrote APIs for data synchronization with external tools to allow the client’s customers to seamlessly incorporate the web app into their existing software landscape and facilitate efficient data flow between the QMS and other systems, such as ERP, CRM, IMS, etc.

Business value

Before

Underdigitized quality management workflow
Scattered quality management data
Non-automated workflows
Delays at all stages of working with documentation
Lack of visibility into quality management processes
High probability of human error

After

Fully digitized quality management processes
Single source of documentation
Minimized manual effort with automated workflows
Streamlined audit-related activities
Complete traceability thanks to time-stamped audit trail
Reduced human error

Client’s testimonial

Hear about the project’s progress and outcomes directly from its product owner:

I was impressed by the developers’ skills and by the ability of *instinctools to extend the team on really short notice. I’m looking forward to the collaboration with *instinctools on our upcoming digital transportation projects

Watch testimonial

Custom Inventory Management System

Rewiring Inventory For an Eyewear Manufacturer
And Retailer

How replacing an overpriced SaaS inventory system with a custom, feature-rich IMS enabled a French eyewear manufacturer and retailer to double the RFID scanning speed and accelerate tag verification x3.

Industry:
Ecommerce

Enterprise Automation

Software Product Development

Data Visualization

Home / Logistics

Business challenge

Retail companies know better than anyone that inventory is a part that can make or break your business’s success. Understocking at critical times and locations can lead to dissatisfied customers. Meanwhile, maintaining a large stockpile brings its own challenges, including storage and insurance costs, the hazards of spoilage, theft, and damage. The ability to strike the balance between having ‘too much’ and ‘not enough’ hinges on inventory management. That’s why it’s critical to take care of its accuracy, transparency, and sustainability.

However, despite the abundance and diversity of ready-made inventory products, finding the one that fits your budget and completely fits your needs is still tricky. For companies that strive for flexibility and full control over the inventory management system (IMS), custom software development is more likely to be the best bet.

Getting inventory in order was the ultimate goal of our client – a French eyewear manufacturer and retailer. It was their fourth project with *instinctools – our team had previously developed several applications for the client’s ecommerce ecosystem.

Their inventory processes were already automated and relied on barcode and RFID scanners, but the SaaS software the client used was costly and feature-limited, failing to cover the company’s operational needs.

Barcode scanners

are designed for line-of-sight scanning within one to two feet; they’re a go-to option for individual product locating and tracking.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) scanners

read data with in an up-to-20-feet range and can near-simultaneously scan multiple tags, but they lack accuracy compared to barcodes. They’re the perfect fit for large-scale tasks such as warehouse management.

As their unmet requirements for IMS functionality kept snowballing, the client faced a dilemma, whether to pour money into adding new features to their current system or invest in a custom solution.

To escape the vendor lock, they decided to opt for their own feature-rich software with unlimited scalability potential.

Solution

The client needed a device-agnostic solution that wouldn’t cost a fortune. Therefore, we went with the idea of a cross-platform app. As other client’s applications were already written in React Native, there were no doubts about the tech stack for the inventory software.

What challenges did our dedicated team face and overcome while crafting a powerful app that fully covered the client’s inventory-related workflows?

Stabilizing third-party libraries
and writing custom ones

Robust libraries are the backbone of smooth integration with barcode and RFID scanners. There are plenty of ready-made options.; However, you should have a seasoned development team able to spot the relevant ones, and write custom libraries to cover your specific inventory functionality.

To provide the client with a stable and easy-to-maintain solution, we followed four key principles when working with the libraries:

Avoiding a cumbersome collection of libraries

The more libraries you have, the more challenging it is to keep them up to date, resolve conflicts between them, and manage a diverse set of dependencies.

Preventing solution architecture complexity

Tight coupling of the software modules and dependency conflicts contribute to crafting a jerry-rigged solution with poor performance and excessive memory consumption.

Stabilizing third-party libraries

Ready-made options can bring critical bugs to the production code, or they may join the ranks of neglected libraries that are no longer supported. In both cases, fine-tuning is a must.

Striking the balance between third-party and custom libraries

Writing custom libraries takes way more time than calibrating the ready-made ones, so for the sake of development speed, it’s better to build them only for highly specific functionality not covered by the existing elements.

With the aforementioned points in mind, our team selected suitable open-source libraries for barcode scanners:

Capture JS for Socket Mobile
React Native BLE (react-native-ble-plx) for Netum

Capture JS is a stable library with detailed documentation, so it was ready to use right away, while React Native BLE was in beta and, therefore, required debugging and stabilization. Since open-source libraries provide full access to their code, *instinctools’ developers fixed it, honing performance and minimizing the overall risk of a third-party element adoption.

Meanwhile, integration with RFID scanners requires custom native libraries. For this purpose, our team utilized React Native Bridge, which works as a communication layer between native modules in Java and the client’s app in React Native with JavaScript code.

Incorporating tabletop RFID readers into the overall hardware ecosystem

Alongside handheld scanners, the client also has tabletop RFID readers. Those devices were much older than the rest of the client’s warehouse and in-store hardware.

Given their age, the tabletop RFID readers:

Lacked basic documentation
Worked with byte messages
Ran on a .NET library, while the rest of the client’s hardware used SDK libraries

The only artifact the client had for these readers was a configuration program. Due to this, *instinctools software engineers had to:

Decompile the configuration program
Investigate the code to understand the requests the program uses for communication with tabletop devices
Configure the same requests in JavaScript

These actions helped standardize the tech stack for all the client’s scanners.

Fighting for the app’s speed

The client wanted to seize RFID scanners’ ability to read large amounts of data and accelerate tag processing. The previous software could handle 300 tags/sec, while their RFID scanners could read 600 tags/sec. Given 15,000+ tagged items in each of the 24 eyewear boutiques across France and Belgium, the client wanted to leverage the scanners’ full capacity.

*Instinctools’ team selected asynchronous caching with scheduled cache refresh to scan the maximum number of tags per second without data streaming hiccups, rendering lags, and other performance glitches. Here’s how it works:

Thanks to using the native Java cache, the app can seamlessly handle 600 elements per second, which is twice the capacity of the client’s previous solution.

Besides doubling tag scanning speed, we’ve accelerated the tag validation process. Our team tripled the speed of data reconciliation between the back end and brick-and-mortar stores by taking advantage of native Java code.

Providing integration with RFID printers

The client decided to take the enhancement of their hardware ecosystem a step further and broaden it with RFID printers. This decision allowed the company to achieve independence from the suppliers of RFID tags and save on printing costs in the long run.

To ensure everything runs smoothly on the tech side, we designed the inventory app that could integrate seamlessly with various RFID printers, from Zebra and SATO to Toshiba, to name a few. That way, the client wasn’t limited in inventory equipment options and could print RFID tags entirely in-house.

Achieving inventory transparency with custom dashboards

Before cooperating with *instinctools, the client didn’t have any dashboards to track inventory levels and, therefore, lacked transparency and traceability of the relevant processes.

Ensuring data tells a clear story is one of our areas of expertise, so the dedicated team bolstered the app’s functionality with a data visualization feature.

Detailed view of a daily inventory state within a particular eyewear shop

On this tab, in-store admins can check the status of inventories conducted in their store:

In progress
Closed
Device issues

Validated
Missing

The staff can also see the number of expected, received, lost, and found back items, and inventory time.

Week or Semester view with inventory state over a longer period

This tab provides higher-level information about inventory status in weeks and months. Thanks to intuitive UI with color-coded table cells, it’s easy to spot inventories calling for detailed analysis:

Successful inventories with more than 95% of items scanned and validated by the system are green
Processes with device issues are orange
Procedures with unidentified items are red
Inventory-free days are gray

These custom dashboards provided the client with much-coveted traceability of inventory processes and empowered them to uncover and nip alarming issues in the bud.

Business value

Before

Overpriced inventory software under the vendor lock-in
Tabletop RFID readers run on legacy software
Inability to use the full capacity of RFID readers
Low tag validation speed
Lack of visibility into the inventory flow

After

The budget-friendly and flexible app is fully tailored to the client’s manufacturing and inventory workflows
Standardized and easy-to-maintain tech stack
Boosted RFID scanners’ reading capacity from 300 to 600 tags per second
x3 tag validation speed
Full transparency and traceability of inventory-related processes thanks to custom dashboards

Client’s testimonial

Here’s how the client’s product manager evaluates the outcomes of collaboration with *instinctools:

Web Solution For Remote Real-time Management of Green Public Transport Substations

How replacing manual monitoring with an automated control system for the trams’ and trolleybuses’ traction substations allowed green public transport management municipalities in the Netherlands to remotely monitor, manage, and retrieve information on emergencies at the substations in real time.

Home / Logistics

Green public transport powered by electricity is now widely used in modern cities. There are different means of transportation that use various electricity storage and delivery methods. But the most famous among them are trams and trolleybuses.

A complex overhead wiring network infrastructure is used to deliver electric power to consumers. This includes kilometers of wires stretched along routes, carrying current and powering transport.

The so-called traction substations are used for delivery of electric current to the various points of a contact network. Traction substations are complex structures consisting of a set of high-power electrical installations, carrying out transformation and switching roles.

These facilities require constant monitoring and management. Usually, there are at least 10-15 substations within a city. Manually monitoring all the substations and ensuring the continuous operation is obviously very difficult. In this case, the use of automated control and management systems would certainly help consolidate and improve the time of response to various kinds of failures and emergencies, thereby directly increasing the uptime.

Challenge

We needed to develop an automated control system, consisting of a hardware-software complex.

It was necessary that the control system would allow to remotely monitor, manage and retrieve information on emergencies at the substation.

In some success-stories, the system would automatically carry out control actions aimed at restoring efficient management.

Solutions

This task was quite specific. We, therefore, built an architecture based on the tasks assigned to us. We selected solutions for this architecture, which meet the customer’s requirements and comply with the operating conditions. We also focused on price while selecting solutions. We were looking for the most favorable combination of price and technology needed to solve the task.

From a list of criteria, we selected a specialized x86-based industrial computer running Windows Embedded Standard. Such computers were installed at each substation
We selected a set of specialized digital and analog I/O modules from Advantech, a 3G modem for the provision of a communication channel with the central control room, interface converters for communication with intelligent modules at the substation
We developed an automated monitoring and control software featuring an external communication interface
We developed a centralized control and management software that allows you to obtain telemetry and remote signaling data from all substations and perform remote control actions

Key features

Constant monitoring and control of substations

Remote retrieval of information on emergencies at substations

Ensuring continuous operation of substations

Restoration of efficient automated management

Technologies

Digital Transport Booking Platform To Rewire Last Mile Delivery

How *instinctools put the project back on track and developed both web and mobile solutions that directly connect haulers and transport buyers, allowing the client to double the number of new users.

Home / Logistics

Challenge

Before the company turned to *instinctools, they had already begun a project involving website and mobile app creation. But their contractors had coped badly with the tasks assigned, so the company asked *instinctools for help. We had to complete functionality which had already begun to be developed, and develop new functions.

The customer turned to us for the finalization of modules for an already existing web application. It was necessary to develop the frontend part. We were asked to complete the website sections that involved order execution, transport search, planning, price-list and settings.
We were asked to complete the mobile app development for the project. Three developers for iOS and Android had already worked on the development, but the code which was written for the app was of very bad quality. That is why the *instinctools team had completed the basic functionality and corrected the bugs.

We completed the functionality in the same way for both the mobile application and the website.

Solution

We developed all requested functionality on the website with clean and valid code, and a sophisticated look and modern style.

As for the mobile application, after the code was corrected and the functionality was improved, our developers began to add new functions to it.

Our developers created large code refactoring for both the Android and iOS versions of app. Thanks to this, we reduced the time for new functional implementation and improved the quality of the code.

Now when a new developer works with the project, much less time will be needed for implementation because the code has become clean and understandable.

Key features

view information about the registered companies

work with a list of orders fast and with ease

invite other users to the service

view and edit order details

calculate the cost of transportation

create an order in three steps

view service users’ profiles

seek trucks for transportation quickly

make an order and see details using mobile app

view operator’s information about transportation

Technologies

Libraries:

Flight Information Control System For a Top-10 Airport

How automating flight information validation and correction helped a European airport eliminate human errors and speed up data checks by 57%.

Home / Logistics

Challenge

Our customer required a system for automatic flight information control with an option of manual information control by a person (flight operations officer) before it is reflected on the display.

The system needed to comply with the demands of consistency, partition tolerance, 24/7 availability and total data safety.

Solution

Our team developed a system that controls the input of information about flights in the airport, based on the defined rules. Based on these rules, the system decides if flight information is right or wrong and if right, it sends messages about flights on flight information display. If it is wrong, the system corrects it automatically, or allows manual correction by a flight operations officer, if automatic correction is impossible. Manual message correction is performed through a separate visual module that can run on any machine with access to this module that recognizes display messages with flight information.

Key features

Automatic handling of flight information input

Take decisions on flight info being right or wrong

Send messages about flights to flight information display

Automatic correction

Visual interface for manual correction

Get 24/7 access to the system

Protection against data loss

Technologies

Risk Management Traveling Platform For a US Startup

How building a traveling app with real-time monitoring and analysis of potential threats in any given area enabled a US-founded startup to take the international market by storm, with one hundred thousand active users worldwide downloading the app in the first post-rollout month.

Home / Logistics

Challenge

The company’s current portfolio consists of web client and mobile apps for iOS and Android, while a more complex and functional version of the platform for corporate travel managers is being currently developed.

The main goal of the project was to build a functional backend and a web application, as well as a mobile app with a simple, user-friendly UI. Data exchange speed and security were the key requirements for the app since it would need to quickly update maps and enable users to download threat updates, even in remote areas over slow mobile connections.

Solution

Due to the innovative nature of the product, it was initially assumed that many of its aspects would be designed and formalized in parallel with the development process, which made *instinctools recommend Scrum for flexibility and optimal performance.

The use of the agile approach enabled the company to quickly start developing the skeleton of the future solution and to add extra details and features in subsequent iterations.

The mobile clients were built using Angular 2, Ionic 2, and Typescript. The desktop-based management dashboard for Windows and Mac was based on the cross-platform Electrons.js framework – the same framework that was used for developing the desktop version of Slack. In addition, a special Windows service was developed to enable the product to send push notifications to mobile devices.

The solution with all of its components heavily relies on a RESTful API, which ensures future scalability, reliability, modifiability and portability.

Result

Several months of hard work resulted in a successful release of the first version of the product, an online service based on a unique concept and possessing a number of outstanding characteristics. The service provides recreational and professional travelers with a reliable source of trustworthy information about threat levels at any global location and helps them travel with confidence about their safety. This partnership was a gratifying experience for *instinctools and its customer. Not only has the team delivered a powerful and functional solution, but it has also established a friendly relationship with the customer. Thanks to the team’s valuable input, the solution included multiple new features that were not part of the original specification.

Scalability

Real-time updates about emergencies, crime-related or potentially life-threatening situations that may take place or have taken place at a particular location

Tracking of the movement of people and/or their property

Plotting of the safest routes

Tips about local culture

Direct communication with service members and growth of the network of contacts

Near-instant updates about crises arising in the user’s destination area

Technologies

Advanced Monitoring App For a Global Car Manufacturer

How building a sales monitoring app with custom operational, analytical, and strategic dashboards provided a car manufacturing corporation with a comprehensive real-time visualization of performance metrics in different units and enhanced annual business planning.

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It is always very important for large corporations to monitor all stages of their activities, to study the objective information, and to review the metrics of performance efficiency. Thus, this company performs daily monitoring of car sales. It has created and has been improving over the years a complex business process which allows the management of the sales process on the basis of metrics.

However such a business process requires the extensive use of computers for various stages: analysis of collected data, calculation of metrics, and visual representation of metrics. Until recent times, it was impossible to receive new information in a mobile way. However, the current level of mobile technology provides the opportunity to create a system which will cope with the large amount of information and deliver a visual representation of performance metrics in the most user-friendly way.

Challenge

The main objectives in creating a mobile application for monitoring the performance metrics for the business was to:

implement the offline mode of the application. The consequence of this requirement was the necessity to handle large amount of data, based on which the various “cuts” of performance metrics should be created. In order to have flexibility and not to occupy the client application with processing a great amount of information, an unusual concept for preparing and delivering data to the client has been created

have the ability to compare data for different periods of time

implement the performance metrics in a visual presentation with the ability to display data in a variety of “cuts”

create a progressive mechanism for filtering and organizing data according to certain criteria

The vehicle manufacturer has one more vital business process – annual business planning. Managers and sale dealers used to meet each other in general meetings and discuss the sales plan for the upcoming year. This process took a lot of time, and the necessity of a multifunctional tool was obvious. As a solution, Business Planning Objective (BPO) was performed as a part of a sales app. BPO offers extensive possibilities for visual representation of plans, management of analytics, comparison of plans and many other features.

Key features

Daily monitoring of sales performance metrics

Management of analytics, tracking of the production process

Annual business planning for managers & sales dealers; coordination of plans

Wide possibilities for visual representation of plans and sales performance metrics, based on the various “cuts”

Advanced security and user access control

Operations with large amounts of information

Support of MobileIron MDM system

Full-featured offline mode

Technologies

Typhoon
Tolo

Mantle
Fabric

Masonry
Pop

VIPER
EasyMapping

Intuitive Web App For Robotics Manufacturer

Business challenge

Solution

Deciding on a tech stack

Taking into account long-term usage scenarios from the onset

Engineering and designing a user-friendly web app

User roles within the app

Robot mission management

Dashboard for monitoring robot condition

Writing a test emulator for the app

Shaping the post-MVP backlog

Before

After

Business value

Client’s testimonial

SaaS Quality Management App For a Leading Maritime Software Provider

Business challenge

Our client wanted to fix these problems with robust software that spans quality, health, safety, and environment (QHSE) processes by:

Solution

Packing the QMS with broad functionality

Ensuring integrability with any corporate systems

Business value

Before

After

Client’s testimonial

Rewiring Inventory For an Eyewear Manufacturer And Retailer

Business challenge

Solution

Stabilizing third-party librariesand writing custom ones

Incorporating tabletop RFID readers into the overall hardware ecosystem

Fighting for the app’s speed

Providing integration with RFID printers

Achieving inventory transparency with custom dashboards

Business value

Before

After

Client’s testimonial

Web Solution For Remote Real-time Management of Green Public Transport Substations

Challenge

Solutions

Key features

Technologies

Digital Transport Booking Platform To Rewire Last Mile Delivery

Challenge

Solution

Key features

Technologies

Flight Information Control System For a Top-10 Airport

Challenge

Solution

Key features

Technologies

Risk Management Traveling Platform For a US Startup

Challenge

Solution

Result

Scalability

Technologies

Advanced Monitoring App For a Global Car Manufacturer

Challenge

Key features

Technologies

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Rewiring Inventory For an Eyewear Manufacturer
And Retailer

Stabilizing third-party libraries
and writing custom ones