Last month, we challenged our mobile team—software developers with no traditional robotics experience—to control a robotic arm using just an iPhone and its natural movements through space. Within just a few days, they had a working demo using ARKit and the Viam platform.
They didn’t spend weeks studying fundamentals or wrestling with low level systems before writing their first line of code. Instead, they used a simple API call that handled the robotic logic and focused on what they already knew how to do: building great mobile experiences.
Their project is proof that the world of robotics is becoming dramatically more accessible. For anyone who knows how to code, turning your ideas into working robots is now within reach.
Curious to try this yourself? We’re inviting UX research participants to our NYC robotics lab for hands-on sessions with real hardware, alongside our engineers. Selected participants will receive $50 as a thank-you for their time. Sign up here!
⚙️ Platform highlights
Here's some of what we shipped this month.
Intuitive model selection interface
Finding and selecting ML models just got easier. The updated model selection modal streamlines how you choose models for both configuration and auto-predictions, with better search, filtering, and visual organization of available models.
Enhanced mobile app arm control
Control robot arms directly from your phone with new real-time sliders. Adjust joint positions and poses with live feedback—as you move the slider, the arm moves instantly. The improved interface makes testing and debugging arm configurations faster without being tethered to a laptop.
Resumable downloads for unreliable networks
Downloads now complete despite spotty connections. Agent and RDK updates now resume automatically if interrupted, critical for robots operating on cellular or Bluetooth tethering. Partial downloads clean up after a few days, and progress reporting shows actual file size.
We’ll be at the MakeMIT x Harvard hardware hackathon, which will bring together MIT's maker culture and Harvard's innovation community for an incredible 24-hour build.
Visit Viam HQ for a full day of talks from engineers and practitioners working on agentic systems, reliability, safety, and real world deployments, plus plenty of time to connect with others in the field.
