One way to encourage adoption of automation is to make robots easier to program. Viam Inc. last week announced the general availability of its flexible software platform for robotics.
“Today, anyone, ranging from aspiring to experienced engineers, can design, configure, operate, and program a robot using Viam,” said the New York-based company.
Eliot Horowitz, former MongoDB co-founder and chief technology officer, founded Viam in 2020. The startup raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global in February 2022, and it announced its public beta in October 2022.
Viam offers easier robot programming
Viam is a standard protocol for programming any robot, claimed the company. It said the platform supports development at every step, from prototype to production.
It works with any hardware and has a modern architecture, easy developer APIs, and cloud connectivity and tools, according to Viam. The platform also includes enterprise-grade security to give even the leanest teams the power to launch and scale their robotics business, it said.
“Viam makes building, deploying and managing robots more flexible, affordable, and easy to use so that builders can do more with robots while getting them to market faster,” said the company. “By making robotics more accessible, Viam is attracting talent and investment to the industry so that more people start working with robots to build products and services that improve our world.”
Viam said it enables builders to:
- Prototype rapidly—using any hardware parts or programming language, developers can configure components in minutes
- Move straight into production using the same platform
- Use built-in data management, machine learning management, and fleet management via cloud services
- Manage and scale fleets securely with locations, organizations, and permissions
“With innovation slowed down by the high time and resource costs for development, we felt that there was a significant opportunity to do something incredibly important,” stated Horowitz. “Robotics can help improve so many industries, from agriculture to food service, to medicine and climate solutions, but we need to break down barriers of working with robotics.”
Sharing customer stories
Viam said it is committed to empowering the next generation of robotics startups, developers, and businesses. It is now sharing customer stories.
“These customers are trusting us with their business and their future, and our commitment to them is to be there every step of the way as they innovate and grow,” explained Horowitz. “They have been with us through the beta and have helped us refine and guide the roadmap for Viam's future.”
To get started, Viam offers tutorials or software trials in its lab. It has also built a Discord community to help innovators connect.
Developers interested in launching their own robotics businesses can consult with one of Viam's robotics experts.
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