Flutter for embedded systems

What is Flutter?

Flutter is an open-source framework backed by Google for building beautiful, natively compiled, multi-platform applications from a single codebase. Flutter is one of the GUI development frameworks that Witekio engineers turn to for clients who require a single, easily managed codebase that delivers a consistent user interface across mobile, desktop, and connected device platforms.

Using Flutter for your embedded systems: main challenges

User experience

One of the primary challenges in GUI development is delivering an optimal user experiencefor embedded devices, and Flutter is no exception.

Cross-platform development

Initially tailored for mobile platforms like Windows, Android and iOS, Flutter has expanded to support Linux, thanks to Google’s collaboration with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. This allows seamless integration with embedded Linux systems and cross-platform development.

Performance

Although a Flutter app may not match the optimized performance of a native app on the same platform, they are often more resource intensive and requires double the memory and CPU power if working correctly. This is a crucial consideration in environments where resources of the operating systems are limited. Optimization of performance is a challenge that our engineers are well-equipped to address with Flutter apps.

Three core advantages of Flutter for embedded devices

Speed

Flutter compiles to ARM and Intel machine code, as well as JavaScript, ensuring high performance across mobile, desktop, and embedded devices.

Productivity

The Hot Reload feature in Flutter allows developers to iterate rapidly, with code updates and immediate visual feedback on display, all without losing the application state.

Flexibility

Flutter provides granular control over every pixel, enabling developers to create highly customizable and visually appealing graphical interfaces that perform well across various screen sizes and device types.

Katie Strausser

Principal Controls Engineer

Witekio felt like part of our team. I genuinely enjoyed working with them, as they really engaged with us to make the best product we can.

Key features of Flutter for embedded systems

High-Performance Rendering Engine

Flutter’s Skia-based rendering engine delivers swift and efficient graphics rendering, crucial for Flutter on embedded systems where performance for users is paramount.

Customizable Widgets

Flutter provides an extensive array of customizable widgets, enabling developers to create highly specialized, responsive user interfaces tailored to the specific demands of embedded Flutter applications.

Dart Programming Language

Utilizing Dart, a modern, object-oriented language, Flutter ensures efficient app performance. Dart’s ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation enhances execution speed and minimizes memory usage, essential for stable resource-constrained embedded environments.

Platform Agnostic

Flutter’s platform-agnostic nature allows for application development across various embedded platforms with minimal codebase alterations, providing the flexibility to target diverse hardware configurations and operating systems.

Integration with Hardware Components

Flutter’s plugin system and supported custom embedders facilitates seamless interaction with hardware components such as sensors and actuators, simplifying the management of input/output operations in embedded systems.

Real-time Capabilities

Flutter supports real-time data processing and display, ensuring prompt system responses and the accurate presentation of real-time information—critical for embedded applications.

Cross-Platform Development

With Flutter, a single codebase supports multiple platforms, ideal for embedded systems requiring integration with mobile, web, or desktop applications, thereby reducing time for the development process and effort.

Extensive Library Support

Flutter’s broad library of pre-built components and packages streamlines development by covering a range of functionalities, from UI components to complex data handling and network communication.

Witekio can support your Flutter apps development for your embedded systems

At Witekio, our engineers appreciate the adaptability of the Flutter framework. Although relatively new, Flutter is intuitive for engineers with experience in developing embedded devices and deeper understanding in object-oriented languages, like Java or C for example, making it easy to transition to Dart, the language used by Flutter. The availability of widgets and templates allows for rapid application development and documenation, making Flutter well-suited for synchronous, asynchronous, and reactive programming. With comprehensive official documentation provided by Google, our experienced teams can quickly resolve any challenges that arise with any Flutter application. Contact our team for more information about developer experience and Flutter on embedded device (embedded Linux or else).