Intermode and Viam empower mobile robotics companies to build fast

Intermode uses Viam's robotics software platform to empower its customers to iterate quickly and build unique mobile robotics applications at scale.

Rapid prototyping

Abstracted hardware and software configurations speed up testing.

Secure teleoperation

Control the Modal instantly from anywhere using the Viam platform.

Built for scale

Viam’s data and fleet management services make it easy to scale production.

“Viam focuses on providing great software tools and we focus on providing great hardware tools to develop robots. Together, we really accelerate how customers can deploy mobile robots out in the market to solve important business use cases.”
—Arnold Kadiu, Co-founder and CEO, Intermode

THE PROBLEM

“One of the largest challenges our customers face is how to test mobile robots repeatedly and build quickly as they're doing it. We looked for a partner who could make it easy for our customers to develop these specific applications.”

Mobile robots have the opportunity to change the status quo in several key industries from food delivery to factory automation, but we’ve yet to see them deployed at scale. With deep expertise in engineering electric and autonomous vehicles, Intermode saw an opportunity to build a hardware foundation for the future of mobile robotics— the Modal .

Intermode built the Modal from the ground up to be modular, durable, and most importantly reliable. Their customers can customize the Modal to suit specific business needs and Intermode covers the rest, maintenance and service included. Intermode eliminates hardware burdens for businesses, allowing them to focus on what they do best.

In working with their customers, Intermode noticed that many needed extra software support to get their robots up and running quickly. They set out to find a software platform that could:

• Allow customers to rapidly configure and test hardware prototypes, accelerating development
• Present an intuitive control interface for new businesses in the robotics field, including cloud-based tools for managing robots ‍
• Complement Intermode's hardware strengths with flexible and secure robotics software

THE SOLUTION

“Instead of spending a lot of time developing something custom, our customers can use Viam to have the Modal execute simple actions or to validate something in the real world. The teleoperation feature has specifically been very helpful.”

Viam stood out as a software partner with its component-based approach to robotics hardware design. By using Viam’s exposed APIs, Intermode implemented the full Modal rover as a custom Base component. Abstracting the CAN bus protocol used by the rover in this way made it easy to securely control the Modal in any programming language of choice.

Intermode’s CEO, Arnold Kadiu, describes this seamless connection between Intermode and Viam as two sides of the same coin: Intermode makes the hardware aspects of mobile robotics easy for businesses, while Viam simplifies the software aspects to accelerate development.

• Viam APIs can be used to relay CAN commands to control the Modal rover
• Customers can instantly and securely teleoperate the Modal to speed up testing and explore real-world validation without extensive coding
• Viam augments the Modal’s extensible design by providing the ability to create custom and modular resources

THE IMPACT

“We share Viam with our customers from the start to help them accelerate their development journey and how they’re approaching the software for building mobile robots.”

By leveraging Viam’s software platform to build the Modal, Intermode has been able to present a compelling offering to their customers: a blend of durable hardware and adaptable software for creating new mobile robotics solutions.

The benefit is clear: accelerated development means you can get your robots into production and to market faster. While previously, it often took several weeks for the Intermode team to create custom testing procedures, now they use Viam to get it done in days. And one of Intermode’s customers, who is building a crosswalk guard mobile robot, can instantly move their robot from anywhere using the Viam platform.

Businesses can further use Intermode and Viam together to:

• Manage mobile robots at scale using Viam’s built-in fleet management, data management, and machine learning services
• Plan and write robot control software using Viam's built-in services for vision, motion, and SLAM
• Create custom and modular resources to manage hardware components and software services for building mobile robots
• Increase mobile robotics applications present in the market, spurring innovation and adoption