Formant aims to make even the fine-tuning of robotics operations possible from a remote setting. In doing so, we’ve developed an intuitive interface through which engineers can essentially “get under the hood” of their on-device application from afar and configure robot application settings remotely via Formant.
Put simply, remote application configuration is a way to customize the behavior of your application using in-app parameters. This can be used to implement feature flags, adjust log level settings, stream configurations, or virtually any other setting that alters the behavior of the application dynamically. You can achieve this either through the Formant web app or our command line tool.
With an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, and a secure backend, you can now configure your on-device applications from anywhere.
Making application configuration work for you
Remote application configuration basically means you’re allowing a portion of your app to be configured from the cloud, saving you the hassle of releasing a patch version every time you wish to make a minor change and A/B test new features. Here are just a few examples of what you can do using Formant’s application configuration interface:
- Changing frame rate, clip distance and other camera related settings
- Setting autonomy specific coefficients and parameters
- Safety limits for velocity, acceleration, and min safe distances
The above examples are only a small sampling of what remote application configuration can do for your team. One can imagine all sorts of unique, case-specific scenarios where application configuration would prove valuable.
Remote application configuration is a powerful tool, which can save untold amounts of time and energy on debugging and managing your application and experience. After some basic initial configuration, this tool will make your life easier and help your organization stay at the forefront of remote robotic administration.
Building and integrating your configured apps in a snap
With our tool, the config value can be set by the user in the application configuration tool, using either the Formant web application or directly from the command line. One can also choose whether to apply the changes on an individual device or an entire fleet of devices. The Formant agent, which fetches configuration periodically usually sees the changes within a few seconds.
Your application can register for config update callback which will be run when the agent fetches new configuration. From inside these callbacks, you can update the application state with the latest change. Finally, configuring your applications running on the robot using a key:value pair through the Formant UI is a simple, one-step task. Once the UI is updated and saved, this configuration is sent directly to the device.
The Formant platform offers unmatched power and control from the comfort of your desktop. With the ability to configure robot application settings remotely, Formant spares you the energy and expense of sending technicians into the field. Simultaneously, your operations become all the more agile, with the ability to test, alter, and innovate on-the-fly and from afar.
Interested in empowering your robotics operators? Click here to contact a Formant team member.
