Reserve a Viam Rover

Try Viam is a way to try out the Viam platform without setting up any hardware yourself. You can take over a Viam Rover in our robotics lab to play around!

Watch this tutorial video for a walkthrough of Try Viam, including how to reserve a Viam Rover, navigate the Viam platform, and drive the rover:

Using the reservation system

Create a reservation

1. Click on the “TRY VIAM” button in the Viam app.

   Log in to Viam and click on the TRY VIAM button in the top navigation bar. If you don’t have an account, it only takes a minute to sign up.

2. Click “TRY NOW” or “RESERVE ROVER” to reserve your slot.

   The Try Viam landing page displays the Next time slot or Estimated Time to Start and other status information. If no one is using a Viam Rover, you’ll take over immediately. Otherwise, you’ll see an estimated time for the next slot on the TRY tab. If your reserved time slot is more than 30 minutes away, we’ll send you an email confirming your reservation and an email when it’s your turn to use the rover.

   When it is your turn to take over a Viam Rover, the page will show that it is configuring your rover. Once that is complete, you can click TRY MY ROVER to access your rented Viam Rover.

   Info

   Viam creates a location called “Rover Rental” in your account’s organization, and adds a Viam Rover with a basic config and a random name (like “wispy-shape”) as a machine in this location.

3. Click “TRY MY ROVER” to use your Viam Rover.

   You’ll be able to control a Viam Rover in the Viam robotics lab for 10 minutes. There is a session timer in the top banner.

Access your rover rental

Once your reservation starts and the system has configured your rover, click TRY MY ROVER from the TRY VIAM page or, if you were queuing, click Take Me to My Rover in the confirmation email.

Limitations

When using a rented Viam rover, adding modules is disabled for security purposes.

Extend your reservation

During your rental, if the next time slot is open, you can click Extend at the top of the page in the control bar. If the option is not available, that means there is another reservation waiting. You must do this before your session ends to reset the timer. Once your session has ended, you can no longer access this option, but the robot’s final configuration will remain in your account. You can always create a new reservation and reuse the configuration to experience Try Viam again.

Cancel my reservation

Click Cancel in the top control banner to release your queued reservation or to immediately end your active session.

Next steps

FAQ

Try Viam allows you to try the Viam platform without setting up any hardware yourself. You can take over and play around with a Viam Rover in our robotics lab from anywhere in the world!

How do I make a reservation to take over a Viam Rover?

1. Click on the “TRY VIAM” button in the Viam app.

   Log in to Viam and click on the TRY VIAM button in the top navigation bar. If you don’t have an account, it only takes a minute to sign up.

2. Click “TRY NOW” or “RESERVE ROVER” to reserve your slot.

   The Try Viam landing page displays the Next time slot or Estimated Time to Start and other status information. If no one is using a Viam Rover, you’ll take over immediately. Otherwise, you’ll see an estimated time for the next slot on the TRY tab. If your reserved time slot is more than 30 minutes away, we’ll send you an email confirming your reservation and an email when it’s your turn to use the rover.

   When it is your turn to take over a Viam Rover, the page will show that it is configuring your rover. Once that is complete, you can click TRY MY ROVER to access your rented Viam Rover.

   Info

   Viam creates a location called “Rover Rental” in your account’s organization, and adds a Viam Rover with a basic config and a random name (like “wispy-shape”) as a machine in this location.

3. Click “TRY MY ROVER” to use your Viam Rover.

   You’ll be able to control a Viam Rover in the Viam robotics lab for 10 minutes. There is a session timer in the top banner.

My machine had an error, a system crash, or is physically stuck

1. Please notify Viam support on our Community Discord.
2. Use the Add Viam Support button on your machine’s Location page to give Viam Support access to your location. Refer to Managing Locations and sub-locations.

Can I extend my time?

Sure!

During your rental, if the next time slot is open, you can click Extend at the top of the page in the control bar. If the option is not available, that means there is another reservation waiting. You must do this before your session ends to reset the timer. Once your session has ended, you can no longer access this option, but the robot’s final configuration will remain in your account. You can always create a new reservation and reuse the configuration to experience Try Viam again.

Can I cancel my reservation/session?

Yes.

Click Cancel in the top control banner to release your queued reservation or to immediately end your active session.

How can I reuse my borrowed rover?

After using Try Viam, your machine config stays in your Viam account. You can access your machine page, write code to control it, and modify its config after your reservation time ends.

When you next borrow a rover you can choose to configure it with a previous rover configuration from your account or create a new rover with the standard starting config.

What happens to my borrowed rover after the rental session?

1. On session expiration, Viam removes the “live” status from the machine.
2. Viam then removes your config from the physical machine in preparation for its next rental.
3. The Rover Rental Location and the final config of all previous rental rovers remain visible to your organization. You can continue modifying the configurations as desired.

I accidentally deleted my machine

Unfortunately, there is no recovery path for a deleted machine. If you delete your machine and have a current reservation, click Cancel Reservation and then request a new reservation.

Can I rename my machine or change the location?

You can rename your machine or change the location. If you change the location, you must refresh the page.

Which organization does this machine e belong to?

Your machine belongs to the organization you were in when you made the request.

Can I share this Location with a friend to work on the machine together?

Sure, you can invite other users to your organization to collaborate on your machine. As members of your organization, those users have full control of your machine. Another collaboration option is to use screen sharing in a Zoom or Webex session.

How many active rentals can I have?

You can only borrow one rover at a time. You cannot join the queue for another reservation while you have an active rental session. If you would like to, you can extend your reservation.

I loved my experience - can I play around more?

Yes! You can borrow the rover as many times as you’d like. Here are some tutorials which you can follow:

• Drive with the Viam SDK
• Detect a Color

If you want to get your own Viam Rover, you can.

Why can’t I use the rover’s microphone?

For security reasons, Viam has disabled the microphone on rover rentals. The microphone on Viam Rovers shipped to you functions normally.

You can also ask questions in the Community Discord and we will be happy to help.