Unified HMI + PLC Platform

Overview

Industrial automation is shifting toward compact edge platforms that consolidate deterministic PLC control, rich HMIs, and telemetry to reduce system complexity and improve scalability. This application is a mixed-criticality implementation on Qualcomm Dragonwing™ industrial processors, where real-time PLC control and a Windows-based HMI are configured to run on the same SoC while remaining isolated through virtualization and CPU partitioning. Using PREEMPT_RT Linux and KVM, deterministic EtherCAT control with CODESYS is designed to execute alongside a virtualized HMI, with OPC UA helping enable streamlined interaction between workloads without impacting real-time performance— aiming to prove that control and interface can reliably coexist on a single platform.

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Benefits

This application is designed to:

Consolidate PLC control and Windows HMI onto a single platform powered by the Dragonwing IQ Series to help reduce hardware footprint and system complexity.

Achieve low-jitter, real-time control with PREEMPT_RT + CODESYS while maintaining a full Windows HMI experience.

Run and reuse Windows and legacy applications on ARM—including x86 via emulation— help to accelerate migration and reduce redevelopment costs.

Isolate real-time control and UI workloads to help ensure deterministic performance without interference.

Enable seamless system integration using OPC UA and EtherCAT for interoperable control and data exchange.

Use Cases

PLC and remote I/O gateway

Combine real-time I/O control, EtherCAT communication, OPC UA data exchange, and local HMI in one compact edge controller.

Multi-axis motion control

Run low-jitter EtherCAT motion workloads while providing operator supervision, tuning, alarms, and diagnostics through the HMI.

Brownfield HMI modernization

Reuse existing Windows HMI applications while migrating control workloads to a modern real-time Linux platform.

Robotic cell supervision

Control motion and I/O in the real-time domain while using the HMI for robot status, alarms, manual operation, and maintenance workflows.

Connected factory interface

Expose machine data through OPC UA for SCADA, MES, diagnostics, and remote monitoring without adding a separate gateway.

Operator-guided fault recovery

Detect faults in the control domain and guide operators through recovery actions using a rich Windows HMI.

Control + HMI consolidation

PLC and Windows HMI on one IQ-powered system.

Block Diagram

Software Stack

Virtualization: A kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) is, an open-source virtualization module integrated into the Linux kernel

Real-time enablement: Linux real-time workload with PREEMPT_RT

HMI/GUI: Uses the Qt Framework (QT6), a cross-platform framework for building modern, high-performance user interfaces

PLC/automation runtime: Uses the CODESYS software platform for industrial automation and PLC applications

Integration protocol: OPC UA between HMI and PLC/control components

Software Stack

OS / BSP: Linux‑based industrial OS on Dragonwing platforms

Inference:  Edge Impulse runtime optimized for Dragonwing accelerators 

GenAI:  Local LLM with Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) 

Application Framework:  Qt (UI framework, application logic, 3D engine) 

Messaging / Integration:  Local MQTT and IPC 

AI Development: Edge Impulse Studio (data ingestion, training, tuning, deployment) 

Ready to get started

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Dragonwing IQ-9075 EVK

Start your design with the Dragonwing IQ-9075 EVK

Sign up for the 90-day extended trial of QT for Device Creation pre-integrated with Qualcomm Linux for Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ series.

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