ARC 2021.03.02 (Pro, Teams, Runtime)

(Autonomous Robot Control Software)
Make robots with the easiest robot programming software. Experience user-friendly features that make any robot easy to program.

Change Release Notes

  • Important update that migrates ARC to use Synthiam's new and improved cloud server - with backup and project version history. The previous server will be shut down in a few days. Previous versions of ARC may still load, but cloud services will be offline unless you update to this or a later version.

  • Huge bug fixes and stability improvements

  • Performance improvement for Blockly UI

  • JavaScript compiler performance improvement

  • updated to latest python libraries

  • camera performance improvement

  • improved memory management


ARC Downloads

ARC Free

Free

  • Includes one free 3rd party plugin robot skill per project
  • Trial cloud services
  • Free with trial limitations

For schools, personal use & organizations. This edition is updated every 6-12 months.

Recommended

ARC Pro

Only $8.99/mo

  • 2 or more PCs simultaneously
  • Includes unlimited skills
  • Cloud backup
  • And much more

Experience the latest features and bug fixes weekly. A Pro subscription is required to use this edition.

Runtime

Free

  • Load and run any ARC project
  • Operates in read-only mode
  • Unlimited robot skills
  • Early access fixes & features

Have you finished programming your robot? Use this to run existing ARC projects for free*.

  • Minimum requirements are Windows 10 or higher with 2+gb ram and 500+MB free space.
  • Recommended requirements are Windows 10 or higher with 8+gb ram and 1000+MB free space.
  • ARC Free known-issues can be viewed by clicking here.
  • Get more information about each ARC edition by clicking here.
  • See what's new in the latest versions with Release notes.

Compare Editions

Feature ARC
FREE
ARC
PRO
  Get ARC for Free View Plans
Usage Personal
DIY
Education
Personal
DIY
Education
Business
Early access to new features & fixes Yes
Simultaneous microcontroller connections* 1 255
Robot skills* 20 Unlimited
Skill Store plugins* 1 Unlimited
Cognitive services usage** 10/day 6,000/day
Auto-positions gait actions* 40 Unlimited
Speech recongition phrases* 10 Unlimited
Camera devices* 1 Unlimited
Vision resolution max 320x240 Unlimited
Interface builder* 2 Unlimited
Cloud project size 128 MB
Cloud project revision history Yes
Create Exosphere requests 50/month
Exosphere API access Contact Us
Volume license discounts Contact Us
  Get ARC for Free View Plans
* Per robot project
** 1,000 per cognitive type (vision recognition, speech recognition, face detection, sentiment, text recognition, emotion detection, azure text to speech)

ARC Pro

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#1   — Edited

Computing through the "Cloud" has always worried me.

PRO
Synthiam
#2  

Why's that David? The cloud really just means our servers, which are backed up nightly so your projects are kept safe:)

PRO
USA
#3  

Some pictures to help you visualize the cloud:

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PRO
Synthiam
#4   — Edited

LOL, @PTP - exactly. Not sure when the word "cloud" became a thing. Maybe because of Visio and PowerPoint having the cloud icon for network flowcharting?:D

User-inserted image

PRO
USA
#5   — Edited

same as the word "server" - people wondered  - wow.....

just someone computer running server software like apache2  on Linux Debian like I use

#6  

It's just that I guess I'm a bit of a control freak. I worries me when someone else has my data instead of me. I'm OK with it as long as I can have a physical copy myself.

PRO
Synthiam
#7   — Edited

I got no reason to care about your projects:)

There's like 120gb of projects on our server. Too much lol

(just checked, yup 112gb of just apps)

PRO
Canada
#8  

Is that private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, hybrid multi-cloud, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS or BaaS on AWS, GCP, AZURE, ORACLE, IBM, ALIBABA or a server in your basement?

Seriously though if we have a project on the current cloud do we need to download the latest version and re-upload it then.

PRO
Synthiam
#9  

@Nink you don't need to re-upload anything. The data has been migrated:)

#10   — Edited

My biggest concern with storage on a distant server that I don't control is losing my data. Not privacy. I don't lose sleep over it but it's a nagging thought in the back of my head.

I do love the convenience on cloud storage and also the power of computing in the cloud. Bing Speach is mind-blowing. But what if someday it shuts down? That part of my robot is useless.

I won't stop using these tools though. I'm not stupid. Lol!:p

PRO
Synthiam
#11  

We have a pretty massive cloud infrastructure and it resides in both California and New York. The servers are hosted at Microsoft’s data center and backed up every evening.

As for services like bing speech and such, those are provided by pretty massive companies. In this case it’s Microsoft as well. The chance of it going away is very slim:)

and don’t worry - we’re not going anywhere either! I’ve been resilient enough to last this long... it’ll take a lot to stop me! The foot print I’m leaving in history has barely begun. Now that this business model has been validated, there’s a bunch of stuff in the works. Lately the focus has been stability and performance.

Im on boarding a new hire who will be attracting new technology partners so we can start throwing even more features/robot skills at ARC. See how much we can pile on before it collapses. (It never will! Muhahahaha)

PRO
USA
#12   — Edited

Quote:

Now that this business model has been validated, there’s a bunch of stuff in the works.
Anything you can share with your shareholders...(i.e. paying customers?), LOL.  It would be nice if we knew the road map for Synthiam and what we can expect in the next 3-6 months, 1 year etc. I'm sure everyone here would love to get excited about the possibilities!!

PRO
Synthiam
#13  

You can’t build a reputation on things you’re going to do - Henry Ford

All seriousness, it’s too early to say. We’re experimenting with a few things on the side. Our highest priority right now is to continue with making the product better with increased reliability and new features by using partner technologies as robot skills. There’s so many neat technologies out there that have great potential in robotics, whether the manufacturer knows it is not.

I’ll continue maintaining my mission of using Synthiam’s platform to connect robot builders and technology creators. We’re starting to grow the technologies, which means more robot skills. The community feature requests have helped direct us on what everyone wants. Also the non community customers are schools and companies also share a lot.

#14  

That's very cool. Its fun to see what will come next. I like seeing what skills get added, as long as a cool piece of hardware goes along with it. The hardware side of  things is, for me, my favorite part of the robot. Wiring it all up and flipping the switch is the fun part, then throw in a little software to make it all do something makes it all worthwhile.

PRO
Canada
#15  

You may want to reconsider US locations for your cloud due to the fact you market your platform globally.   US is not recognized as a country providing GDPR "Adequacy Status" so you may find some trouble operating with Europe.  Canada on the other hand does.  Also the US homeland security regulations in regards to the governments rights to data hosted on US soil is also a challenge.

If you want to discuss hosting in say Montreal and Toronto with a fully fault tolerant highly available multizone / multiregion cloud I can help you out.

PRO
Synthiam
#16  

Thanks, @nink, that's good to know for scaling. The current infrastructure has been in place since 2013 and fulfilling our needs presently. Those are good considerations for the future!