In 2023, Qt Group joined Ducati Motorcycle Holding's official business program, consolidating a long-standing partnership to implement digital dashboards in several projects.
The recently launched Ducati Scrambler features the powerful yet lightweight graphics engine of QT for MCUS to power its brand-defining digital displays.
For a motorcycle like the Ducati Scrambler, which is characterized by responsiveness, performance and style, the digital display is an integral part of the overall brand experience and should reflect the overall characteristics of the motorcycle that is smooth, fast and elegant. The sophisticated instrument cluster design includes sleek start-up animations, dynamic multilingual menus that change position and size on the screen for optimal readability, and flexible real-time interaction with motorcycle data.
QT Solution Highlights:
Powerful graphics and low memory footprint.
Lightweight graphics engine with hardware acceleration.
Flexible UI framework that can be customized via C++*.
Efficient UI development that is decoupled from system configuration.
Agile workflows for rapid iteration.
Bare metal development. The market demands modern, rich, and sophisticated graphics, as well as dynamic visuals that can adapt to world-class events. Speed, intervention by the car's electronic control system, and rotational speed should all be reflected on the screen in real time, with a continuous stream of data flowing in milliseconds. We want to achieve smartphone-like performance, but the platform doesn't need to have a gigahertz frequency.
Claudio Mariani, Head of Dashboard and Connectivity at Ducati Motorcycle Holding
Perfection without compromise
Qt for MCUS achieves elegance and fluidity on the microcontroller chosen by Ducati"Quasi-3D graphics"。The Qt for MCUS graphics framework allows Ducati Scrambler to use only 15MB RAM for high performance"Quasi-3D graphics"。QT for MCUS runs on bare metal or real-time operating systems, and its highly optimized libraries are tailored for MCUs and low-end MPUs. The entire app only takes up about 15MB RAM.
Ducati and Egicon S., a first-tier vendor responsible for developing dashboards for Scramblerr.l.Collaborate to find a low-footprint framework that doesn't depend on a specific operating system, in order to separate GUI development, hardware driver development, and system configuration, ultimately creating a flexible system that strips out all unnecessary elements. Qt for MCUS allows the EGION team to not only work on bare metal, but also develop the UI on the PC before the actual hardware is ready.
We used QT technology to develop and test the user interface on the PC, and the second team developed the hardware on bare metal at the same time. When we started the hardware and software integration, we tested the graphics and functionality of the user interface and only needed to verify it on the actual hardware. This parallel workflow has reduced our delivery time by more than 50%.
egicon s.r.l.Amilcare Franciosi, Head of the Automotive Team
Best-in-class performance for advanced graphics
The Ducati team held several meetings with the QT support team to optimize the performance of the UI application. Thanks to the use of QT for MCUS 22 (the latest version at the time of the project), Ducati was able to process complex 32-bit background images using RLE compression, a significant improvement over the original RGB format.
The blend of brand style and graphics is an essential element of the success of a well-known motorcycle brand and cannot be compromised. Microcontrollers are powerful devices for applications that require fast start-up, precise timing, thermal efficiency, and real-time control, but they limit resource utilization—a limitation that is becoming increasingly difficult to accept as technology advances. The QT Quick Ultralite lightweight graphics engine and its hardware acceleration provide the low memory footprint needed to run such eye-catching visuals on a microcontroller.
We've done a lot of work to optimize layer interactions, reduce the number of screen areas reproduced in dynamic scenes, and reproduce** animation effects through moving objects, gradient effects, and clips. The smooth, beautiful animations on the Scrambler dashboard are now made possible by the combination of the efficiently generated UI using QML and C++*.
egicon s.r.l.Roberto Bellinato, Software Project Manager (responsible for the graphics and animation of the project).
About Ducati Motorcycle Holding S.A
Founded in 1926, Ducati has been producing sporty motorcycles since 1946 characterized by high-performance engines, innovative design and cutting-edge technology. The Ducati factory is located in the Borgo Panigale district of Bologna. The model range covers multiple market segments, including DesertX, Di**El, XDI**El, Hypermotard, Monster, Multistrada, Panigale, Streetfighter and Supersport.
In 2015, Ducati launched Ducati Scrambler: a new brand of motorcycles, accessories and clothing that stands out for its creativity and self-expression. Ducati's iconic motorcycles, as well as a wide range of motorcycle accessories, technology and fashion apparel can be found in 90 countries around the world. In 2022, Ducati delivered a total of 61,562 motorcycles.