Build any robot, from a single servo to a six-axis arm, with supervision, kinematics, and real-time control built in.
Robots are concurrent, failure-prone, real-time systems on flaky hardware. The BEAM (Elixir's runtime) has spent decades solving exactly that in telecoms, with the same toolkit you already reach for in Elixir.
The building blocks for reliable robot systems, powered by OTP supervision and Elixir's expressive syntax.
This is a complete pan-tilt camera mount (every link, joint, and movement limit) in a few dozen lines. It reads more like a description of the hardware than a program that builds it.
And it's ordinary Elixir: version it, test its geometry, refactor it freely. Need a six-legged robot? Loop over the leg instead of copy-pasting it.
defmodule PanTiltCamera do
use BB
topology do
link :base_link do
visual do
cylinder do
radius ~u(0.03 meter)
height ~u(0.02 meter)
end
end
joint :pan_joint do
type :revolute
origin do
z ~u(0.015 meter)
end
limit do
lower ~u(-170 degree)
upper ~u(170 degree)
end
link :pan_link do
joint :tilt_joint do
type :revolute
limit do
lower ~u(-45 degree)
upper ~u(90 degree)
end
link :camera_link
end
end
end
end
end
endUpdates, tutorials, and insights from the Beam Bots project.
The balance bot balances. Getting there meant taking Nx back out of the maths core — 6.9× fewer reductions and a whole CPU core handed back — plus multi-DoF joints, a framework-owned clock, and commands that finally admit when they've been refused.
Every actuator command now enters through one door with a guard on it: three bb releases, a migration for every servo driver, drivers that declare what they speak and finally stop when told to. Plus teleop, on someone else's arms.
The maths core moves to Nx defn with analytical Jacobians, both IK solvers ride along, the balance bot starts rolling its wheels, and your robot now renders in 3D inside a terminal.
Beam Bots is early and built in the open. Real hardware, real drivers, real momentum. Whether you want to drive a servo, write a driver, improve the docs, or just follow along, there's room for you.
This project is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors.
Beam Bots is solo-maintained. Sponsorship keeps the work going.
