Viam's Client APIs

Every Viam resource exposes an application programming interface (API) described through protocol buffers.

The API methods provided by the SDKs for each of these resource APIs wrap gRPC client requests to the machine when you execute your program, providing you a convenient interface for accessing information about and controlling the resources you have configured on your machine.

Platform APIs

• Fleet Management API

  Create and manage organizations, locations, and machines, get logs from individual machines, and manage fragments and permissions.

• Data Client API

  Upload, download, filter, tag or perform other tasks on data like images or sensor readings.

• Machine Management API

  Manage your machines: connect to your machine, retrieve status information, and send commands remotely.

• ML Training Client API

  Submit and manage ML training jobs running on Viam.

• Billing Client API

  Retrieve billing information from Viam.

• Session Management API

  Manage sessions, heartbeats, and safety timeouts for connected clients.

Component APIs

These APIs provide interfaces for controlling and getting information from the components of a machine:

• Component APIs overview

  See every component API and its methods at a glance in one compact grid.

• Arm API

  Give commands to your arm components for linear motion planning.

• Audio in API

  Give commands to your audio in components.

• Audio out API

  Give commands to your audio out components.

• Base API

  Give commands for moving all configured components attached to a mobile platform as a whole without needing to send commands to individual components.

• Board API

  Give commands for setting GPIO pins to high or low, setting PWM, and working with analog and digital interrupts.

• Button API

  Give commands for getting presses from a physical button.

• Camera API

  Give commands for getting images or point clouds.

• Encoder API

  Give commands for getting the position of a motor or a joint in ticks or degrees.

• Gantry API

  Give commands for coordinated control of one or more linear actuators.

• Generic API

  Give commands for running custom model-specific commands using DoCommand on your generic components.

• Gripper API

  Give commands for opening and closing a gripper device.

• Input controller API

  Give commands to register callbacks for events, allowing you to use input devices to control your machines.

• Motor API

  Give commands to operate a motor or get its current status.

• Movement sensor API

  Give commands for getting the current GPS location, linear velocity and acceleration, angular velocity and acceleration and heading.

• Power sensor API

  Commands for getting measurements of voltage, current, and power consumption.

• Sensor API

  Give commands for getting sensor readings.

• Servo API

  Give commands for controlling the angular position of a servo precisely or getting its current status.

• Switch API

  Give commands for getting the state of a physical switch that has two or more discrete positions.

Service APIs

These APIs provide interfaces for controlling and getting information from the services you configured on a machine.

• Service APIs overview

  See every service API and its methods at a glance in one compact grid.

• Data management service API

  Give commands to your data management service to sync data stored on the machine it is deployed on to the cloud.

• Vision service API

  Give commands to get detections, classifications, or point cloud objects, depending on the ML model the vision service is using.

• ML model service API

  Give commands to your ML model service to make inferences based on a provided ML model.

• Motion service API

  Give commands to move a machine's components from one location or pose to another.

• Navigation service API

  The navigation service API has been removed.

• Generic service API

  Give commands to your generic components for running model-specific commands using DoCommand.

• Base Remote Control service API

  Give commands to get a list of inputs from the controller that are being monitored for that control mode.

• Discovery service API

  Reveal which resources are available to configure on a machine based on the hardware that is physically present.

• World state store service API

  Retrieve a list of world objects.