Viam, a software platform for smart machines, has announced a partnership with Tennibot, a robotic tennis ball collector. This collaboration aims to assist in building, prototyping, and scaling Tennibot’s fleet of autonomous tennis assistants, targeting sales expansion to tennis clubs and enthusiasts across the country.
The Tennibot robot, introduced in April 2024 at the RacquetX all-racquet sports conference in Miami, autonomously navigates tennis courts to detect and collect balls. This functionality is intended to save players and coaches up to 30% of the time typically spent on ball collection. Tennibot employs Viam’s data technology to ensure that each machine is updated with the latest software needed for identifying balls, navigating obstacles, and collecting performance data for optimization.
As production of Tennibot machines increases, Viam’s platform will be used to capture and synchronize data from machines in the field. This data assists the Tennibot team in monitoring machine performance, performing remote diagnostics, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Tennibot was created by CEO and co-founder Haitham Eletrabi, who was inspired during a practice session. With co-founder and CTO Lincoln Wang, Eletrabi developed and refined the machine, overcoming technical challenges that led to the partnership with Viam. Viam’s open-source platform offers out-of-the-box cloud pipelines that integrate easily with machines, facilitating their monitoring and management. This open architecture allows interoperability and data sharing among different machines and the cloud.
Viam’s platform has streamlined Tennibot’s data management and operational processes, helping the company scale and expedite their market entry. According to Wang, Viam’s software enables Tennibot to monitor machine status and deploy updates efficiently, supporting fleet expansion and faster manufacturing and delivery.
The partnership showcases Viam’s commitment to enhancing automation across various sectors, including consumer recreation and industrial applications. Viam founder and CEO Eliot Horowitz emphasized that the collaboration with Tennibot exemplifies how their platform supports innovation and scalability for both startups and established enterprises.
Long-term plans for the partnership include further development of the Tennibot robot, with potential integration of AI and machine learning capabilities to help players improve their techniques.
For more information, check out the Tennibot website here.
