Fusion Engineering on using Rust for drone flight controllers
by mre on 7/11/2024, 7:07:42 PM
I interviewed Fusion Engineering about using Rust for drone controllers. Some things surprised me:
- Their approach is closer to game development than I expected; same focus on predictable performance.
- They run their main loop at 1kHz on Linux. Hardware is a Compute Module 4 from Raspberry Pi.
- Non-software engineers on their team picked up Rust quickly. That's not what you usually hear about Rust.
- They can handle a rotor failing mid-flight. The drone keeps flying.
They open-sourced some interesting crates too. Worth checking out if you're into embedded Rust. Links in the show notes.
I interviewed Fusion Engineering about using Rust for drone controllers. Some things surprised me:
- Their approach is closer to game development than I expected; same focus on predictable performance.
- They run their main loop at 1kHz on Linux. Hardware is a Compute Module 4 from Raspberry Pi.
- Non-software engineers on their team picked up Rust quickly. That's not what you usually hear about Rust.
- They can handle a rotor failing mid-flight. The drone keeps flying.
They open-sourced some interesting crates too. Worth checking out if you're into embedded Rust. Links in the show notes.