Est.
1998
Accepting Q3 — Q4 2026 engagementsFirmware & hardware engineering
Firmware & hardware engineering
for mission-critical systems
A boutique engineering practice led by Roberto Zanaboni. We design embedded electronics, write firmware, and bring up integration for aerospace, medical, automotive and industrial clients — from schematic to certification.
Industries served
4/ regulated
Shipped projects
40+
Based in
Milan, IT
Industries served
Aerospace
Medical devices
Automotive
Industrial IoT
R&D labs
EST. 1998 · MILAN
// Capabilities
What we build
End-to-end delivery across embedded hardware and firmware — from first schematic through certified production.
Firmware development
Bare-metal and RTOS firmware in C / C++ for ARM Cortex-M, PIC, DSP and Linux-based SoCs. Drivers, bootloaders, comms stacks, low-power.
PCB & schematic design
Altium-based schematic and multilayer PCB layout. High-speed design, mixed-signal, isolation, EMC-aware routing. Mechanical in SolidWorks.
Test & validation
Custom HIL benches, environmental testing and instrumentation. Battery abuse, EMC pre-compliance, signal integrity on production hardware.
SoC & FPGA migration
Porting legacy designs (Z8000, PIC, DSP) to modern ARM SoCs and FPGAs. Same functionality, lower BOM, longer lifecycle.
Connected devices
ESP32 / BLE / Wi-Fi firmware with companion Android apps. From sensor node to mobile control surface and cloud ingestion.
Regulated & safety-critical
Documentation, traceability and verification practices aligned with medical (IEC 62304) and aerospace workflows. Built for audit.
// Featured case
Isolated AD converter for multi-modal medical devices
// Client: 3T — 2018 → ongoing
A galvanically isolated, 24-bit acquisition front-end for pacemakers, dosimetry and physiological monitors.
Starting from the analog front-end, we designed a medical-grade isolated AD converter that serves multiple device classes from a single platform. The firmware runs on a Linux-based SoC and exposes a common driver surface so the same hardware drops into pacemaker programmers, radiation dosimeters and benchtop monitors.
Schematic, mixed-signal PCB, isolation strategy, bring-up and characterisation with precision instruments — delivered with full V&V documentation for medical audit.
// Featured case
Wireless test harness for a DBVT R&D lab
// Client: MB International — 2019 → ongoing
An ESP32-based stimulation rig for devices under test, controlled wirelessly from an Android tablet on the bench.
As resident Test Quality engineer in MB International's R&D lab, we design the PCBs that sit between the DUT and the real-world system it will eventually ship into. Each harness stimulates the target, captures its response, and mimics the final product's interfaces so engineering can qualify behaviour before integration.
Bench instruments are controlled over Wi-Fi: an ESP32 acts as a self-contained access point and HTTP server, and a companion Android app drives every I/O line, sequence and measurement — no laptops, no cables across the lab floor.
// Selected work
28 years of shipped engineering
2021 →
Avionics firmware programmeALTEN Italia — defense & space integrator
Aerospace · Firmware
C++CARM
2019 →
DBVT test instrumentation & ESP32 controlMB International — R&D lab
Industrial · HIL
ESP32AndroidPCB
2018 →
Isolated AD converter platform3T — medical device OEM
Medical · Mixed-signal
C++Linux SoC
2017 →
EV battery test harnessSamsung SDI — Graz, Austria
Automotive · Validation
HWTest
2015 →
Card reader firmware on ARM SoCThales Alenia Space Italia
Aerospace · Firmware
C++LinuxARM
2015 →
High-speed DSP board (TI C6713 / VC5109)Spatium Tecnologies — MDR
Industrial · High-speed PCB
PIC18DSPAltium
1998 →
Legacy card reader port — Z8000 → PICInfo Solution — Milan
Industrial · Firmware migration
AssemblerPIC
// About
Senior engineering without the agency layers
Clients bring Roberto in when the system matters, the tolerances are real, and there isn’t time for handoffs between strategy decks and actual bring-up.
Most engagements start with an unstable prototype, a legacy platform that has outlived its parts availability, or a product team that needs experienced embedded judgement for the last hard 20%. Roberto works directly with hardware, firmware and test teams to unblock the path to production.
The practice is intentionally small. That means tighter communication, fewer meetings, and one accountable engineer who understands the design across the stack — from analog constraints to firmware behaviour to lab validation.
Common assignments include board respins, bring-up of Linux-based SoCs, RTOS / bare-metal firmware, test harness design, and productionisation of one-off R&D prototypes.
// Tooling
The stack we ship with
Tools and platforms we work in day-to-day. We bring new targets on board when projects call for them.
PyTorch
ML FRAMEWORK
TensorFlow
ML FRAMEWORK
Python
LANGUAGE
OpenCV
VISION
CUDA
GPU / ACCEL
C / C++
LANGUAGE
Linux / Yocto
OS
// Let's talk
Have a project that needs senior embedded hands?
Send a short brief — the problem, the domain, the deadline. You'll hear from Roberto within two working days.