Build a custom app with Python

This guide is for experienced developers who prefer working locally. The instructions assume you’re comfortable setting up your environment, installing tools, and deploying software.

NOVA provides a platform to develop, deploy, and manage custom applications for controlling robots. You’ll build locally using the Wandelbots NOVA Python SDK and turn your project into a full app.

What this guide covers

• Understanding NOVAx, the app framework that serves your robot programs
• Implementing your app logic and HTTP endpoints
• Deploying the app to a cell and verifying it at /cell/<your-app-name>

Prerequisites

• You completed the Wandelbots NOVA quickstart guide and have a NOVA cloud instance running including a robot.
• You completed the local development setup: the NOVA CLI is installed and you created a project from the Python template that runs locally.

NOVAx programs

NOVAx is an app framework provided by the Python SDK for building server applications on top of Wandelbots NOVA. It provides common core concepts like the handling of robot programs and their execution.

The app template ships one example program by default:

• start_here.py - This is a Python program that demonstrates the basic structure and patterns for robotics programming using the Python SDK. It lives inside your app package and registers automatically when the app starts.

NOVAx also scans a programs directory by default. Drop a .py file with a @nova.program into it and the program is picked up without a manual import.

If you’re coming from Wandelscript (deprecated), see the migration guide for running both approaches side by side.

Add custom endpoints to FastAPI

The app template provides default functionality with NOVAx app template however, the FastAPI object lives on user code. This means, you have the full power to customize app layer.

The provided register_programs.py file contains two examples:

@app.get("/app_icon.png", summary="Services the app icon for the homescreen")

@app.get("/", summary="Opens the interactive API", response_class=HTMLResponse)

Deploy your app

Once your app works locally, deploy it to your NOVA instance to make it permanently available. The deployment guide walks you through setting up Docker, connecting a container registry, and pushing the app with the NOVA CLI.

Further steps

To use the full Python SDK capabilities, refer to the Wandelbots Python SDK documentation or by exploring the Python SDK GitHub repository.

To create FastAPI servers that expose robot programs as REST APIs for other frontend frameworks to consume, refer to the NOVAx framework.