TAIL OS - V0.1: Microkernel RTOS written in RUST

[neurocom]

Hi, This is an introduction to TAIL OS, a Rust-based microkernel RTOS targeting embedded and robotics systems.

The development is in the early stages, running on Raspberry Pi 3B and QEMU. Key features of V0.1 include

• microkernel
• process & thread manager
• memory manager with paging
• basic filesystem
• UART, SD drivers

Our goal is to evolve this into a specialized robotics OS with deterministic scheduling and safer IPC.

The OS is currently a closed-source project shared only for technical discussion. If you have experience with robotics, embedded systems, or RTOS design, I would appreciate insight on "What features are critical for a reliable robotics OS?"

Quick Start (QEMU)

Download:

Code: Select all

wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/tail.rfs
wget https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/tail_disk.img

Run:

Code: Select all

qemu-system-aarch64 -M raspi3b -kernel tail.rfs -serial stdio -drive file=tail_disk.img,format=raw,if=sd

Demo:


Refer to https://tail-os.com/README/ for more details. Thanks!

[Demindiro]

The OS is currently a closed-source project shared only for technical discussion. If you have experience with robotics, embedded systems, or RTOS design, I would appreciate insight on "What features are critical for a reliable robotics OS?"

In lieu of source code (and even if it was available), documentation would be useful to figure out what decisions you've made as well as the rationale behind them.

[neurocom]

I'll prepare some technical documents and share them. Thanks!

[evaristo]

The OS is currently a closed-source project shared only for technical discussion.

For an operating system as ours, open-sourcing could help a lot, else users may need to reverse engineer half your system. It would also help for people on forums like this to help you troubleshoot and to better understand your design choices.

You also said currently, so I think you plan to open-source on an early release [?].

Anyway, good luck with TAILS OS!

[neurocom]

I understand and agree with your point. open-sourcing would make it much easier for others to understand the system, troubleshoot issues, and give meaningful feedback. We haven’t made a final decision yet, but open-sourcing is definitely one of the paths we're seriously considering for the os.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback!

[neurocom]

The OS is currently a closed-source project shared only for technical discussion. If you have experience with robotics, embedded systems, or RTOS design, I would appreciate insight on "What features are critical for a reliable robotics OS?"

In lieu of source code (and even if it was available), documentation would be useful to figure out what decisions you've made as well as the rationale behind them.

See this for the the synchronous IPC high level design. https://tail-os.com/wp-content/uploads/ ... public.pdf