The Micro-RDK and viam-micro-server
The Micro-RDK is the lightweight version of Viam’s Robot Development Kit (RDK) designed for embedded systems (ESP32 microcontrollers) that do not have the resources to run the fully-featured viam-server.
Microcontrollers do not have full operating systems like single-board computers and general-purpose computers. As a result, microcontrollers only run one program at a time. To change the logic that runs on a microcontroller, you must flash the microcontroller with new firmware.
viam-micro-server is the pre-built firmware built from the Micro-RDK and a default set of modules, provided as a quick starting point.
For most use cases, you will build your own firmware from the Micro-RDK instead of using viam-micro-server.
Hardware requirements
You need an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller to use viam-micro-server.
Viam recommends purchasing the ESP32 with a development board.
The following ESP32 microcontrollers are supported:
You will also need a data cable to connect the microcontroller to your development machine, though subsequent firmware updates can be made remotely with the over-the-air (OTA) service.
Your microcontroller should have at least the following resources available to work with viam-micro-server:
- 2 Cores + 384kB SRAM + 2MB PSRAM + 8MB Flash
Tip
The WROVER allows only a small number of incoming gRPC connections (1-5, depending on resources), whether over HTTP2 or WebRTC. You can change this max by building your own firmware.
Support
Client API usage with the Micro-RDK currently supports the following resources:
Next steps
To use the Micro-RDK with existing modules, follow the ESP32 setup guide. To create your own modules, follow the Modules for ESP32 guide.
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