Configure Data Capture

Add the Data Management Service

To capture data from one or more robots, you must add the Data Management Service:

1. On your robot’s CONFIG page, navigate to the Services tab.

2. At the bottom of the page you can create a service. Choose Data Management as the type and specify a name for your Data Management Service, for example data_manager.

3. Then click Create Service.

4. On the panel that appears, you can manage the capturing and syncing functions individually. The Data Management Service captures data every 5 minutes in the /.viam/capture directory by default.

   You can change the interval and directory.

   Info

   If you change the directory for data capture only new data is stored in the new directory.
   Existing data remains in the directory where it was stored.
   

5. Click Save Config.

The JSON configuration for the Data Management Service is:

{
  "components": [ ],
  "services": [
    {
      "name": "data_manager",
      "type": "data_manager",
      "attributes": {
        "sync_interval_mins": 5,
        "capture_dir": "/.viam/capture"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Configure Data Capture for Individual Components

Once you have added the data capture service, you must specify the data you want to capture at a component level. The following components support data capture:

• Arm
• Board
• Camera
• Encoder
• Gantry
• Motor
• Movement Sensor (includes GPS)
• Servo

To add data capture for a component, navigate to the components tab on your robot configuration page. For each component you can capture data for, there is a Data Capture Configuration section in its panel. Click Add Method and then select the method type and the capture frequency.

For example, a camera has the options ReadImage and NextPointCloud and a motor has the options Position and IsPowered.

This is an example JSON configuration capturing data from the ReadImage method of a camera:

{
  "services": [
    ...
    ,
    {
      "name": "data_manager",
      "type": "data_manager",
      "attributes": {
        "sync_interval_mins": 5,
        "capture_dir": "/.viam/capture",
        "sync_disabled": false
      }
    }
  ],
  "remotes": [
    {
        ...
    }
  ],
  "components": [
        ...
    ,
    {
      "service_config": [
        {
          "attributes": {
            "capture_methods": [
              {
                "capture_frequency_hz": 0.333,
                "disabled": false,
                "method": "ReadImage",
                "additional_params": {
                  "mime_type": "image/jpeg"
                }
              }
            ]
          },
          "type": "data_manager"
        }
      ],
      "model": "webcam",
      "name": "cam",
      "type": "camera",
      "attributes": {
        "video_path": "video0"
      },
      "depends_on": [
        "local"
      ]
    },
    ...
  ]
}

You may capture data from one or more component methods:

• To enable or disable data capture for a configured component or method, use the on/off toggle.
• To change the frequency of data capture for a method, enter the number of measurements you wish to capture per second in the frequency field.

After adding configuration for the methods, click “Save Config”.

If you want to remove a capture method from the configuration, click the delete icon.

Configure Data Capture for Remote Parts

Viam supports data capture from remote parts. For example, if you use a component that does not have a linux operating system or that does not have enough storage or processing power, you can still process and capture the data from the component by adding it as a remote part.

Currently, you can only configure data capture from remote components by adding them to your JSON configuration. To add them to your JSON configuration you must explicitly add the part’s type, model, name, and additional_params to the data_manager service configuration in the remotes configuration:

This is an example for an esp32 board:

"type": {
    "Type": {
        "type": "component",
        "namespace": "rdk"
    },
    "subtype": "board"
},
"model": {
    "name": "rdk:esp32:board"
},
"name": "rdk:component:board/esp-home:board",
"additional_params": {
    "A2": "",
    "A1": ""
}

The following example captures data from two analog readers that provide a voltage reading and from pin 27 of the board’s GPIO:

{
  "services": [
    {
      "attributes": {
        "capture_dir": ".viam/capture",
        "sync_disabled": true,
        "sync_interval_mins": 5
      },
      "name": "data_manager",
      "type": "data_manager"
    }
  ],
  "components": [],
  "remotes": [
    {
      "name": "esp-home",
      "address": "esp-home-main.33vvxnbbw9.viam.cloud:80",
      "service_config": [
        {
          "type": "data_manager",
          "attributes": {
            "capture_methods": [
              // Captures data from two analog readers (A1 and A2)
              {
                "method": "Analogs",
                "capture_frequency_hz": 1,
                // You have to explicitly set the component type to ensure the
                // pi knows what the part is because it cannot automatically
                // detect it.
                "type": {
                  "Type": {
                    "type": "component",
                    "namespace": "rdk"
                  },
                  "subtype": "board"
                },
                "model": {
                  "name": "rdk:esp32:board"
                },
                "name": "rdk:component:board/esp-home:board",
                "additional_params": {
                  "A2": "",
                  "A1": ""
                },
                "disabled": false,
              },
              // Captures data from pin 27 of the board's GPIO
              {
                "method": "Gpio",
                "capture_frequency_hz": 1,
                // You have to explicitly set the component type to ensure
                // the pi knows what the part is because it cannot
                // detect it.
                "type": {
                  "subtype": "board",
                  "Type": {
                    "namespace": "rdk",
                    "type": "component"
                  }
                },
                "model": {
                  "name": "rdk:esp32:board"
                },
                "name": "rdk:component:board/esp-home:board",
                "additional_params": {
                  "27": ""
                },
                "disabled": false
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ],
      "secret": "REDACTED"
    }
  ]
}

Next Steps

To sync your captured data with the cloud, configure cloud sync.