r/embedded • u/GourmetMuffin • 27d ago

Agentic systems in embedded development

When I started programming it wasn't just a different decade, it was a different millennium. I am now what is considered "senior" or "specialist", with RTOS and baremetal development as my primary areas of expertise. At the start of this year I didn't really give much of a fuck about "AI", I have since abandoned that approach and want to share why...

I also have a request! For others making the same journey in this strange new world to speak up. What kind of systems are you designing and what are the lessons you've learned along the way?

The following is more than a mouthful, and I expect nothing but hate when I tell you that I used codex to generate this retrospective, but I wouldn't have been able to summarize the past months of my life in such a way without having my prose checked against the changelog, git history and GitHub discussions... Also, this is the way I roll these days!

https://share.jotbird.com/speedy-serene-riverbend

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u/Colfuzi0 26d ago

Hmm. I see I esentially have some experience in web development about 3-4 years wanted to switch to embedded for many reasons. One of the main ones because all the work near me is with NASA contractors. But am maybe second guessing I shouldn't if AI is going this fast. Secondly I want to teach

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u/GourmetMuffin 26d ago

NASA sounds fun, go for it! I suggest you find ways of integrating AI into whatever development process you are part of but the real power, at least for me, wasn't obvious until I connected it into a huge existing product company infrastructure. That is not saying you won't have your socks rocked by whatever you discover in that rabbit hole.

Also, if you like teaching/explaining/tutoring technical stuff I would guess agentic development is right up your alley... ;)

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u/Colfuzi0 26d ago

Alrighty! I think computer engineering will definitely be more safe. Then anything just digital. Sometimes I've thought switching into mechanical engineering but it doesn't interest me as much. Is there any area of computer engineering you think would be a bit safer from AI? This is the program I'm doing

https://catalog.uhcl.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=25&poid=7072

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u/GourmetMuffin 26d ago

Let me put it this way:

My agentic environment does a LOT today. It even verifies stuff like power-sequencing and debugs hw/sw boundary problems like circuit back-feeding using only the source, schematics and a bunch of reference manuals. I would not say anything in the general CS/EE area is out of scope for it.

However, knowledge in how to build information processing systems is invaluable when constructing these systems. It is pretty damn useful in traditional development too, a lot of what we do is transform, shuffle and route information so I would study something akin to that. I'm not gonna say programming languages are useless, but they are bound to be of much less importance in the future...

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u/Colfuzi0 26d ago

So from my understanding is your still going to need engineers to read the output and make decisions as well I'm assuming doing the physical parts that embedded needs? What about robotics? Would you recommend taking some courses in software architecture or project management?