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SLAM service API

The SLAM service API allows you to get a machine’s position within a map.

The SLAM service supports the following methods:

Method Name	Description
`GetPosition`	Get the current position of the component the SLAM service is configured to source point cloud data from in the SLAM map as a `Pose`.
`GetPointCloudMap`	Get the point cloud map.
`GetInternalState`	Get the internal state of the SLAM algorithm required to continue mapping/localization.
`GetProperties`	Get information about the current SLAM session.
`InternalStateFull`	`InternalStateFull` concatenates the streaming responses from `InternalState` into the internal serialized state of the SLAM algorithm.
`PointCloudMapFull`	`PointCloudMapFull` concatenates the streaming responses from `PointCloudMap` into a full point cloud.
`Reconfigure`	Reconfigure this resource.
`DoCommand`	Execute model-specific commands that are not otherwise defined by the service API.
`GetResourceName`	Get the `ResourceName` for this instance of the SLAM service with the given name.
`Close`	Safely shut down the resource and prevent further use.

Establish a connection

To get started using Viam’s SDKs to connect to and control your machine, go to your machine’s page on the Viam app, navigate to the CONNECT tab’s Code sample page, select your preferred programming language, and copy the sample code.

To show your machine’s API key in the sample code, toggle Include API key.

Caution: Keep your API key and machine address safe

We strongly recommend that you add your API key and machine address as an environment variable. Anyone with these secrets can access your machine, and the computer running your machine.

When executed, this sample code creates a connection to your machine as a client.

The following code examples assume that you have a machine configured with a SLAM service called "my_slam_service".

Python
Go

from viam.services.slam import SLAMClient

import (
  "go.viam.com/rdk/services/slam"
)

API

GetPosition

Get the current position of the component the SLAM service is configured to source point cloud data from in the SLAM map as a Pose.

Python
Go

Parameters:

timeout (float) (optional): An option to set how long to wait (in seconds) before calling a time-out and closing the underlying RPC call.

Returns:

(viam.services.slam.Pose): The current position of the specified component.

Example:

slam_svc = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, name="my_slam_service")

# Get the current position of the specified source component in the SLAM map as a Pose.
pose = await slam.get_position()

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.

Returns:

(spatialmath.Pose): A Pose representing the current position of the specified component.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

// Get the current position of the specified source component
// in the SLAM map as a Pose.
pos, name, err := mySLAMService.Position(context.Background())

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

GetPointCloudMap

Get the point cloud map.

Python

Parameters:

return_edited_map (bool) (required): signal to the SLAM service to return an edited map, if the map package contains one and if the SLAM service supports the feature.
timeout (float) (optional): An option to set how long to wait (in seconds) before calling a time-out and closing the underlying RPC call.

Returns:

(List[bytes]): Complete pointcloud in standard PCD format. Chunks of the PointCloud, concatenating all GetPointCloudMapResponse.point_cloud_pcd_chunk values.

Example:

slam_svc = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, name="my_slam_service")

# Get the point cloud map in standard PCD format.
pcd_map = await slam_svc.get_point_cloud_map()

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

GetInternalState

Get the internal state of the SLAM algorithm required to continue mapping/localization.

Python

Parameters:

timeout (float) (optional): An option to set how long to wait (in seconds) before calling a time-out and closing the underlying RPC call.

Returns:

(List[bytes]): Chunks of the internal state of the SLAM algorithm.

Example:

slam = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, name="my_slam_service")

# Get the internal state of the SLAM algorithm required to continue mapping/localization.
internal_state = await slam.get_internal_state()

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

GetProperties

Get information about the current SLAM session.

Python
Go

Parameters:

timeout (float) (optional): An option to set how long to wait (in seconds) before calling a time-out and closing the underlying RPC call.

Returns:

(viam.services.slam.slam.SLAM.Properties): The properties of SLAM.

Example:

slam_svc = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, name="my_slam_service")

# Get the properties of your current SLAM session.
slam_properties = await slam_svc.get_properties()

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.

Returns:

(Properties): Information about the current SLAM session. An object containing four fields:
SensorInfo (SensorInfo[]): Information about the sensors (camera and movement sensor) configured for your SLAM service, including the name and type of sensor.
CloudSlam (bool): A boolean which indicates whether the session is being run in the cloud.
MappingMode (MappingMode): Represents the form of mapping and localizing the current session is performing. This includes creating a new map, localizing on an existing map and updating an existing map.
InternalStateFileType (string): The file type the service’s internal state algorithm is stored in.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

// Get the properties of your current SLAM session
properties, err := mySLAMService.Properties(context.Background())

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

InternalStateFull

InternalStateFull concatenates the streaming responses from InternalState into the internal serialized state of the SLAM algorithm.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
slamSvc (Service): The SLAM service name to fetch the internal state for.

Returns:

([]byte): A byte value representing the internal serialized state of the SLAM algorithm.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

PointCloudMapFull

PointCloudMapFull concatenates the streaming responses from PointCloudMap into a full point cloud.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
slamSvc (Service): The SLAM service name to fetch the point cloud map for.
returnEditedMap (bool): A boolean representing whether to return the edited map (true) or not (false).

Returns:

([]byte): The returned PointCloudMap.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

Reconfigure

Reconfigure this resource. Reconfigure must reconfigure the resource atomically and in place.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
deps (Dependencies): The resource dependencies.
conf (Config): The resource configuration.

Returns:

(error): An error, if one occurred.

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

DoCommand

Execute model-specific commands that are not otherwise defined by the service API. For built-in service models, any model-specific commands available are covered with each model’s documentation. If you are implementing your own SLAM service and add features that have no built-in API method, you can access them with DoCommand.

Python
Go

Parameters:

command (Mapping[str, ValueTypes]) (required): The command to execute.
timeout (float) (optional): An option to set how long to wait (in seconds) before calling a time-out and closing the underlying RPC call.

Returns:

(Mapping[str, viam.utils.ValueTypes]): Result of the executed command.

Example:

my_slam_svc = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, "my_slam_svc")

my_command = {
  "cmnd": "dosomething",
  "someparameter": 52
}

await my_slam_svc.do_command(command=my_command)

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.
cmd (map[string]interface{}): The command to execute.

Returns:

(map[string]interface{}): The command response.
(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

mySLAMService, err := slam.FromRobot(machine, "my_slam_svc")

command := map[string]interface{}{"cmd": "test", "data1": 500}
result, err := mySLAMService.DoCommand(context.Background(), command)

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

GetResourceName

Get the ResourceName for this instance of the SLAM service with the given name.

Python

Parameters:

name (str) (required): The name of the Resource.

Returns:

(viam.proto.common.ResourceName): The ResourceName of this Resource.

Example:

my_slam_svc_name = SLAMClient.get_resource_name("my_slam_svc")

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

Close

Safely shut down the resource and prevent further use.

Python
Go

Parameters:

None.

Returns:

None.

Example:

my_slam_svc = SLAMClient.from_robot(robot=machine, name="my_slam_svc")
await my_slam_svc.close()

For more information, see the Python SDK Docs.

Parameters:

ctx (Context): A Context carries a deadline, a cancellation signal, and other values across API boundaries.

Returns:

(error): An error, if one occurred.

Example:

mySlamSvc, err := slam.FromRobot(machine, "my_slam_svc")

err = mySlamSvc.Close(context.Background())

For more information, see the Go SDK Docs.

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