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Phase 2: Configure resources

In this phase you configure the three hardware resources every pick-and-place machine needs: an arm, a gripper, and a camera. Your machine starts with none of them. You add each one by hand, watch it come online, and confirm it works from the CONTROL tab before moving to the next.

The target state

By the end of this phase your CONFIGURE tab holds three components:

Name	API	Model
`arm-1`	`rdk:component:arm`	`viam:ufactory:xArm6`
`gripper-1`	`rdk:component:gripper`	`viam:ufactory:gripper`
`cam-1`	`rdk:component:camera`	`viam:camera:realsense`

You will not touch the vision service in this phase. The shape-detector and vision-segment services that let the machine find blocks by shape come later, in Phase 5, right before you write the code that calls them. For now, focus on the hardware.

Configure the arm

On the CONFIGURE tab, add a new component. In the add-component dialog, search for xArm6 and select the viam:ufactory:xArm6 result. Name the component arm-1.

Set the following attributes:

host: the xArm controller’s IP address, provided by your workshop facilitator
port: 502

You can leave speed_degs_per_sec and acceleration_degs_per_sec_per_sec unset for now; both are optional and default to safe values.

Save the config. This is the moment from Phase 1 made concrete: viam-server does not have viam:ufactory:xArm6 built in, so it fetches the viam:ufactory module from the Viam registry and starts it. Open the LOGS tab and watch it happen: a log line for the module download, then one for the module starting, then arm-1 itself coming online. The whole sequence usually takes well under a minute.

Two components, one module

The viam:ufactory module provides both the arm model and the gripper model you configure next. You only pay the download cost once.

Configure the gripper

Add another component. In the add-component dialog, search for the viam:ufactory:gripper model and select it. This model comes from the same viam:ufactory module as the arm. Name it gripper-1.

Set one attribute:

arm: "arm-1"

This attribute is also a dependency: gripper-1 cannot start until arm-1 is running, because the gripper is physically mounted on the arm and controlled through the same connection. Save the config and check the LOGS tab again. Because viam-server already has the viam:ufactory module running from the previous step, gripper-1 comes online immediately with no second download.

Configure the camera

Add a third component. In the add-component dialog, search for realsense and select the viam:camera:realsense result. Name it cam-1.

Set the following attributes:

sensors: ["color", "depth"]
width_px: 640
height_px: 480

Save the config and confirm in the LOGS tab that viam-server downloads the viam:camera-realsense module and starts cam-1. This is a separate module from viam:ufactory, since it comes from a different publisher and family.

Test each resource from the CONTROL tab

Open the CONTROL tab. You should now see a test card for each of the three components you just added.

On the camera card, confirm you get a live feed:

Checkpoint

The camera card shows a live color stream from cam-1. If depth is available as a separate view, confirm that stream updates too. If the card is blank, check the LOGS tab for a camera error before moving on.

On the arm card, jog a joint with the sliders and confirm the arm moves. Then select Get end position and confirm it returns x, y, and z coordinates.

Checkpoint

Jogging a joint slider moves the physical arm, and Get end position returns a coordinate rather than an error. If jogging does nothing, confirm arm-1 shows as online in the CONFIGURE tab and that the LOGS tab has no connection errors for it.

On the gripper card, place a block between the gripper fingers by hand, then select Grab. The fingers should close and hold the block. Select Open and confirm the fingers release it.

Checkpoint

With a block between the fingers, Grab closes the fingers and the gripper holds the block without dropping it. Open releases the block. This grab-and-release is the same action your Python code performs later in the workshop when it picks a block and drops it in a bin. If your gripper card also shows a holding status indicator, it now reads true while the block is held and false once the gripper is open and empty.

The 3D scene tab

Open the 3D scene tab. You should see a rendered model of the arm and the cam-1 frame positioned at the end of its wrist.

Jog joint 1 with the arm card’s sliders and watch the 3D scene as the arm turns. The cam-1 frame moves with the arm, because the camera is mounted on the wrist rather than fixed in the workspace.

Why this matters later

Because the camera is wrist-mounted, every detection it makes is relative to wherever the arm happens to be pointed at that moment. In Phase 5 you will detect from a single known pose so that “camera space” always means the same thing. Notice that pose here; you will meet it again as the “detect from home” rule.

The exact camera mounting offset used to transform its frame into the arm’s frame comes from your hardware setup guide or the pre-provisioned config, not from anything you configure in this phase. For now, just confirm the relationship: the frame exists, and it tracks the arm.

Check your work

If you want to compare your configuration against a known-good version, the companion repo has a reference copy at machine-fragment.json. Use it to check your work, not to import over what you just built by hand.

With arm-1, gripper-1, and cam-1 all live and verified, you are ready for Phase 3, where you save a set of fixed arm poses and prove the full hardware sequence works before perception enters the picture.

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