[HMI] Flutter

HMI & 3D UI

Flutter

Flutter is a cross-platform UI framework supported by Google and powered by the Dart programming language and runtime.

Originally focused primarily on mobile development, Flutter now supports mobile, web and desktop platforms, while its embedder architecture also enables development for embedded systems.

The open-source ecosystem is large and continues to expand across industries. For embedded applications, Proof-of-Concept development and comparison of performance metrics with established solutions such as Qt can help determine the best fit for a specific product and platform.

What is Dart?
What is Flutter?

Companies including Sony and Toyota have explored or adopted Flutter for embedded and automotive applications. Toyota, for example, uses Flutter as part of its in-vehicle infotainment development, while Sony maintains an Embedded Linux embedder for Flutter.

Dart is a client-optimized programming language for developing fast applications on multiple platforms. Its goal is to provide a productive language for multi-platform development, paired with a flexible execution runtime platform for application frameworks.

Flutter is an open-source UI framework powered by Dart. It enables developers to build applications for mobile, web and desktop from a shared codebase, while its embedder architecture also enables integration with embedded platforms.

Flutter/Dart provides customers with:

A performant and feature-rich cross-platform development environment
A large ecosystem of packages, tools and developers
Open-source technologies with permissive licensing
Support from Google together with contributions from the broader open-source community

Flutter has continued to expand beyond mobile development into desktop and embedded applications. In automotive, Toyota has adopted Flutter for its in-vehicle infotainment development, demonstrating its application to production embedded systems

What can we do?

tQCS-KDAB provides software consultancy services for organizations evaluating Flutter for embedded and cross-platform applications. KDAB engineers actively contribute to the Flutter ecosystem, including the development of flutter-pi, an embedder for running Flutter applications on embedded Linux platforms.

KDAB has also conducted experimental work connecting Dart and Qt through Dart/Qt bindings, providing additional experience for technical analysis involving Flutter, Dart and Qt/QML technologies.

Flutter/Dart provides a modern cross-platform development environment for customers considering new GUI technologies across multiple target platforms.

Some customers require a GUI framework that can support multiple platforms, while others are evaluating how Flutter can coexist with or replace existing Qt/QML applications. Because Flutter and Qt/QML use different architectures and development models, migration or integration should be evaluated according to the existing software architecture, target platform and performance requirements.

Flutter is increasingly being evaluated for embedded applications across areas such as automotive, industrial and medical devices. For these applications, performance, hardware integration, resource usage and platform support should be validated before selecting the technology for production.

In efforts to support the research and development needs of our customers, tQCS-KDAB provides flexible workshops and professional consultancy services to evaluate technical applicability and develop a Proof-of-Concept, including:

Establish and document key use cases, technical requirements, target platforms and integration targets
Define Proof-of-Concept scope and technical deliverables for selected platforms
Establish performance and quality metrics
Implement the Proof-of-Concept
Benchmark and profile performance, scalability and resource usage
Document challenges, risks and constraints identified during implementation
Analyze the impact on non-PoC use cases and identify strategic opportunities and challenges

A typical research project can range from a couple of weeks to approximately three months, depending on its scope.

Whether you are evaluating Flutter for embedded systems, comparing Flutter with Qt/QML, developing a Proof-of-Concept, or investigating a migration from an existing application, talk to us about your requirements.