Fusion Engineering with Jakub Valtar

Jul 11, 2024

Jakub Valtar, a former game engine developer turned drone software engineer at Fusion Engineering, discusses innovative flight-control systems for the next generation of drones. He highlights Rust's advantages, including performance and safety, crucial for drone operations in complex environments. Valtar shares insights on handling hardware failures, utilizing real-time scheduling on Raspberry Pi, and the importance of robust error handling. He also emphasizes Rust's role in improving team productivity and encourages others to explore drone development, blending technology with creative engineering.

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ADVICE

Fail Fast When Safety Requires It

Handle recoverable errors in code flow and crash when continuing would be unsafe.
Jakub says crashing is preferable to an uncontrollable drone when recovery is impossible.

ADVICE

Encode Assumptions In Types And Docs

Encode assumptions in types and docs to prevent misuse and preserve critical knowledge.
Jakub recommends making illegal states unrepresentable and documenting non-encodable constraints.

INSIGHT

Give Primitives Meaning With Types

Use new-type patterns and enums to avoid primitive misuse and make code self-documenting.
This reduces bugs like mixing units or boolean blindness by giving semantic meaning to values.

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Rust can run everywhere, and by everywhere, we don't just mean on all operating systems, but also in all kinds of harsh environments: from the depths of the ocean to the vastness of space. Today we talk to a company that is using Rust to conquer the air. Fusion Engineering is building drone control systems for the next generation of drones.

Jakub Valtar walks us through how Fusion Engineering came to use Rust as the foundation of their company. He explains why Rust is the safest choice for building drone control systems and what it takes to get into drone development.

About Fusion Engineering

Fusion Engineering identified a critical gap in the industry: while drone hardware has advanced rapidly, software development has lagged behind.

Their approach is ambitious - developing drone control systems from the ground up, with a strong focus on safety. It's about making drones fly reliably in complex environments.

Their flight controller is designed to meet the most stringent EU regulations, potentially allowing drones to operate safely in urban areas and withstand harsh conditions offshore.

About Jakub Valtar

Jakub Valtar is a game engine developer turned drone software engineer. He feels comfortable in performance-critical environments and loves the intersection between art and technology. He joined Fusion Engineering to work on control systems for the next generation of drones.

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Links From The Show

Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4
PID controller - Wikipedia article on Proportional-Integral-Derivative controllers
Rust Atomics and Locks - Book by Mara Bos on concurrency in Rust
inline-python - Rust crate for embedding Python code directly in Rust
intbits - Rust crate for working with individual bits
git-version - Rust crate for embedding Git version information in your binary
Ferrocene - Safety-critical Rust toolchain by Ferrous Systems

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