Join us for a detailed look at how ICS used its rapid, low-code development toolkit, Greenhouse by ICS, to help Miller Electric create a new industrial welding product on a short timeline. In this webinar, we’ll cover Miller Electric’s vision for the product and the pressure of their looming deadline. And we’ll explore the facets of Greenhouse, which includes everything needed to quickly build a quality touch device.

1. Welcome
Accelerating Development of a
Safety-Critical Cobot Welding System
with Qt/QML Automation Tools

2. Introduction
2

3. Matthew Ellis
Engineering Manager
ICS
Business Development Manager
Miller Welding Automation
David Savage
3

4. Established in 1987, ICS is a pioneer in the graphics
and user interface space
Early adopter of Qt, back to the Trolltech days, now a
global services and training leader
Founded Boston UX to provide high value UX/UI
services – we can design and build what you envision
Continual expansion into Medical and Life Science
Solution expansion - platform, cybersecurity, IoT,
regulatory, AI, web, mobile, testing services
Developed low code tools – auto generates code,
tests, and documentation from designs in half the
time
160 person strong global team
4
About ICS

5. Project Overview
5

6. Project Goals
Building a intuitive Cobot
welding system which upholds the
high quality Miller is known for.
6

7. Project Requirements
● Tight timeline
● Hard deadline
● Not to compromise UX
● Not to compromise quality
7
Cost
Speed
Quality
Impossible?

8. ● 3 sets of expertises
● Newly formed team
● Multiple locations
8
Welding
UI/UX
Robotics
Project Challenges

9. Project Execution
9

10. Project Start
● UX/Visual design in
place
● Existing software stack
● Hardware in place
10

11. Figma is the leading collaborative
design tool for building
meaningful products
11
Figma

12. Qt is cross-platform software
for creating graphical user
interfaces for embedded platform
applications
12
Qt Framework

13. Low-code environment and
specialized suite of development
tools, which combine to rapidly
generate high-quality Qt/QML
code
13
Greenhouse by ICS

14. A Streamlined Approach
Figma UI & UX Design
● Reduces time to generate assets
● Easy handoff from UX designers
● Or design directly in the framework
14
Framework for Development
● Import assets into the framework
● Easily interface and bind data
● Add custom QML components
● Integrate unique backends
(Websockets, 0MQ, Mqtt, etc.)
Desired Application
● Platform agnostic Qt/QML code
● Enforces layered architecture
● Reusable, testable code
● RPC support for remote backends
and simulations
✅ Generated UI
✅ Framework
✅ Simulator
✅ Code reuse

15. ● UX design concepts defined in Figma
● Figma files contains screen layouts,
components, themes
and styles
15
UX Design Reference

16. ● Figma has the concept of reusable
components to aid in design
● Here we have buttons with default,
pressed and selected states
● Button, dropdowns, progress bars,
sliders, images, lists, grids, input
fields, and more
16
Figma Components

17. Figma Screen layouts
● Screens layouts are defined
on a separate page
● Screens will use instances
of the components
● Navigation can be hooked
up for a demo in Figma
17

18. Figma Styles
● Text and Colors can be defined in Figma
● Using Styles allows for quick change of
values while iterating through UX
● Styles can also be used to define Themes
(Light/dark modes)
18

19. Figma Import Process
● Greenhouse Figma importer provides
the ability to import the UX designs
from Figma to jump start the GUI
development
● UI prototype in weeks not months
19

20. Components
● Figma components imported
as functional components in
code
● Able to preview behaviours in
Greenhouse Architect
Component tab
20

21. Screens
● Screens and Popups are laid
out in Figma imported into
Greenhouse Architect
● Navigation is also imported
● Connections to components
also maintained
21

22. 22
Figma Styles
● Text and Colors can be
defined in Figma
● Using Styles allows for quick
change of values while
iterating through UX
● Styles can also be used to
define Themes (light/dark
modes)

23. 23
Greenhouse player
Preview UI without having
to compile code

24. 24
Presenters
● Presenters make the view
functional
● Add in properties,
methods, events, enums
● These get generated into
C++ code and then bound
to the view

25. 25
Auto Generated Simulator
● Quick validation of
visuals
● No effort to produce
● Simulators are popular to
mitigate long hardware
lead times

26. 26
Integration
● Once verified GUI code,
then it is time to integrate
the code to the
Application logic
● The clean architectures
allows for quick
debugging of the issues

27. Development Process
27

28. 1 2 3
Single Unified Team
UX, UI development,
backend development,
Project Management on
one team
Adjustable Process
Lightweight process at
first
Dialed up controls later
Development process for success
28
Iterative Development
Refined design
Tested often

29. Apply today at
https://resources.ics.com/greenhouse-beta
Greenhouse 2.0 Beta Program
29

30. Miller Welding Automation
30

31. Part of Illinois Tool Works
31

32. Miller Welding Automation
32

33. Miller Welding Automation - What we do
33

34. 34

35. Timeline for Copilot
35
2021
Project Initiated
Began customer needs evaluation
Prototyping and product
development
Fast-paced Development
January started engaging ICS for
UX Help
June internal debut to internal
sales team
November debuted Copilot
product at Fabtech in Atlanta
2022
Product Launch
February 2023 full product launch
Sold 70 systems
2023
Continuous Improvement
and Advanced Features
Touch sensing
Seam tracking
Multi-pass
2024

36. ● Develop and integrate a new robot arm in less than a year
○ Meet value propositions
● MWA had no software developers in-house
Our Challenges
36

37. How ICS Helped Us
37
Implementation
MWA was able to take the
Greenhouse data and
implement into back-end
UX Design
Workflows were optimized
and articulated through
Figma
Greenhouse
The work in Figma was
transformed quickly
through Greenhouse

38. ● Went to market with a competitive
solution in less than a year
○ Greenhouse compressed development
schedule
■ Simplified code generation
■ Fast results
● World class UX
○ Best in market for ease-of-use
○ Incorporated VBL
● Development of advanced features
at warp speed
Results
38

39. Apply today at
https://resources.ics.com/greenhouse-beta
Greenhouse 2.0 Beta Program
39

40. 40
Questions?