Originally designed for private use, development boards are now increasingly being used in industrial environments as they are easy to program, cost-effective and are supported by a vast community of software and hardware developers. But how are development boards actually used in European manufacturing? reichelt elektronik surveyed more than 1,500 companies across Europe to find out
Diversity is the biggest advantage
According to reichlet elektronik’s survey, development boards have become increasingly popular within the European industry. An overwhelming majority of businesses surveyed (77%) now use them with proponents praising the multitude of possible applications (43%) and the programming simplicity (31%). Nearly 10% of companies surveyed stated that they do not plan to utilise this boards in any way, which suggests the European industry is becoming increasingly confident in their utility for manufacturing use cases.
Companies surveyed also shared reasons for avoiding their usage. Nearly a quarter of respondents (22%) say they would forego the use of development boards because they often face compatibility issues with other systems. The additional costs for hats and shields were also a frequently cited reason (22%) for not using development boards.
Shields make development boards industrially ready
Companies surveyed frequently use add-on boards also known as “Shields” and Hardware Attached On Top (HAT) boards to upgrade this boards for industrial use. 80 percent of the companies upgrade the boards with the following functions:
- 61% – More robust design for the industrial environment
- 50% – Expansion of connections and possible transmission protocols
- 40% – Faster data transmission
- 12% – Special functions such as microphones, 3D motion tracking or power management
36% of respondents said they would like to see more robust single-board computers and microcontrollers in the future. In addition, European companies would view single-board computers and microcontrollers even more competitive if they had much more computing power and memory (36%) including trusted solutions for cybersecurity (36%).
Are development boards replacing traditional industrial computers?
European companies use their boards primarily to serve industrial applications (44%). This is followed by the development of prototypes (36%) and AI applications or data processing for edge computing (35%). Lastly, 35% uses its boards for robotic applications.
Most companies resort to either development boards from Raspberry Pi (34%), Google (31%) or NVIDIA (29%). However, many companies see Rasperberry Pi’s supremacy wavering. When asked which manufacturer is likely to have the largest market share in the next five years, 33% of respondents named Google – ahead of Raspberry Pi (28%).
Even the possibility of pivoting from industrial computers no longer seems so far away. Almost three quarters (73%) of the decision-makers surveyed see development boards as a serious competitor for the earlier widespread industrial computers.
The size of the company determines the use
When comparing the use across the different company sizes, it is noticeable that small companies with up to nine employees (65%) and particularly large companies with more than 1,000 employees (81%) incorporate them in their processes. In medium-sized companies, they are used by an average of 77%.
We also observed that small companies typically incorporate a progressive approach when scaling up their use of development boards and utilise their boards primarily for robotics applications. They have a share of 29 percent. In contrast, Europe’s largest companies prioritise industrial applications (53%) and prototype development (45%).
Looking ahead
“Development boards are already widely used in the European industry,” explains Sven Pannewitz, Product Manager – Development Boards & Vehicle Accessories at reichelt elektronik. “Many decision-makers even see them as serious competition for the industrial computers that are in use. With the advancing automation of production processes and the increasing number of application fields, the number of development boards could increase even further in the future. If manufacturers manage to continue to meet the industry’s wishes, the use of development boards will soon be standard.”
Further information:
Survey: The figures were collected by the international survey institute OnePoll for reichelt elektronik and include 1,550 participants from Europe.
copyright: reichelt elektronik
