Manage Machines

A machine is an organizational concept, consisting of either one part, or multiple parts working closely together to complete tasks. The machine represents the configuration and entry point for one or more computers (and the components they control) coupled into one logical grouping of parts that work together to complete tasks. A machine usually reflects a physical device, from a camera collecting images, to a wheeled rover, or an articulated arm on a factory floor. A machine always has a main part that receives client requests, and any number of other parts.

Add a new machine

Add a new machine by providing a name in the New machine field and clicking Add machine.

Click the name of a machine to go to that machine’s page, where you’ll find a variety of tools for working with your machine.

Navigating the machine page

Next to the machine name, there is an indicator of the machine’s status. Click on the status dropdown to open a menu with information about each part of your machine. Once you connect to the viam-server instance on a part, this display includes its OS, Host, viam-server version, IP addresses, and what time it was last online or remote address (if live):

Set up a new machine

To connect to the viam-server instance on a part, follow the setup instructions. Open the part status dropdown menu in the top left corner of the page, next to the machine’s name. Click View setup instructions to open the setup instructions.

Select your system’s architecture and select the version of the RDK to use. Then, follow the instructions on the page to connect and set up your machine.

Once all parts of your machine are set up and connected to the app, the part status display at the top left corner of the page turns green. Now, you can manage your machine with one of four tabs: CONFIGURE, CONTROL, LOGS, and CONNECT:

CONFIGURE

The configuration of a machine describes the resources that it has access to. When a machine part that is managed with the Viam app first comes online, it requests its configuration from the Viam app. Once the machine has a configuration, it caches it locally and can use the configuration for up to 60 days. The machine checks for new configurations every 15 seconds and changes its configuration automatically when a new configuration is available.

After connecting your machine, go to the CONFIGURE tab, and start adding components, services, and other resources.

The Viam app keeps a record of your configuration changes, allowing you to revert to earlier configurations if needed. To see the history of the configuration of a machine part, click on History on the right side of its card on the CONFIGURE tab.

For more information, see the configuration documentation.

CONTROL

Once you have configured components and services for your machine, you can visually test and remotely operate them from the CONTROL tab in the Viam app. For example, if you have configured a base with wheels, you can control your machine’s movement with an arrow pad and fields to change base’s speed. If you have configured a camera component, a window in the CONTROL tab displays the camera output.

If you use remote control in the Viam app UI, all communication to the machine uses WebRTC. For local communication between parts Viam uses gRPC or WebRTC.

You can also access the control interface using the Viam mobile app, which you can find on the App Store and on Google Play. The Viam mobile app gives you the ability to monitor and operate machines in your fleet. You can control each machine component, watch any live camera feeds, adjust components’ runtime parameters, and switch between controllable components just as you would in the Viam app.

LOGS

To make debugging issues with your machines easier, each machine automatically sends its logs to the cloud. You can access your logs from the LOGS tab in the Viam app and filter your logs for specific keywords or log levels:

You can click on the part names in the left-hand menu to switch logs between parts. You can also change your timestamp format to ISO or Local depending on your preference.

CONNECT

Code sample

To start programming your machine, go to the CONNECT tab and select the Code sample page. This has boilerplate code snippets you can copy and paste into your SDK code to connect to your machine.

For more information on the SDKs, see Program your Machine with Viam’s SDKs.

Configure as remote part

On the CONNECT tab, there is also a page called Configure as remote part. This page has instructions for how to configure a part of your machine as a remote part of another machine.

API keys

Your machine and the Viam app communicate securely using WebRTC with unique secrets. The API keys page of the CONNECT tab allows you to access, generate, and delete your API keys, which grant access to organizations, locations, and machines.

Copy an API key or API key ID by clicking on the clipboard icon. Click Show details and Access settings to go to your organization settings page, where you can modify the access your API keys provide.

Delete a machine

To delete a machine, click on the … menu in the top right hand corner of its page, select Delete machine, and confirm that you’re sure.