The increase in computational performance of embedded software systems also brings a significant rise in complexity and vulnerability. To counterbalance this, modern programming languages that provide more robust frameworks compared to C are gaining increasing traction.
The student’s task is to design and develop embedded programs by combining or simultaneously applying the weakly typed C language with the strongly typed Rust programming language.
For the former, the open‑source Rust wrapper available for FreeRTOS (freertos_rust - Rust) provides an excellent foundation; for the latter, the use of the new and emerging Embassy embedded middleware (embassy-rs/embassy: Modern embedded framework, using Rust and async.) offers an exciting opportunity—particularly in comparing the usability and performance of Embassy with the more traditional, task-scheduler‑based FreeRTOS.
The task does not require dedicated hardware, microcontroller-based or microprocessor-based devices; it can also be completed on a desktop computer using hardware emulation, see Welcome to QEMU’s documentation! — QEMU documentation.
Possible subtasks:
- Rust literature (Official Rust Books - The Little Book of Rust Books)
- Selection of software stacks (what do you want to play with?)
- Creation of an architecture diagram (what exactly do you want to try with them?)
- Development of C and Rust applications (coding monkey; parallel implementation of a new application in Rust and C, or replacing certain parts of a pure C application with Rust code)
- Analysis (Where was Rust useful? Where was C indispensable? Runtime performance? Size? Memory consumption?)