Built by engineers who needed it themselves, for teams that demand reliability and control.
ControlFloor is a product of Dry Ark LLC, a consulting firm founded by David Helkowski. With over 30 years of software engineering experience spanning databases, platform architecture, infrastructure, and mobile automation, Dry Ark delivers solutions across the full technology stack.
ControlFloor was born out of real-world needs working with iOS device farms at scale. After years of battling the limitations of existing tools, David built ControlFloor from the ground up as the platform he wished existed.
David's journey into iOS device automation began at T-Mobile, where he worked extensively with OpenSTF (Smartphone Test Farm) to build internal device labs. That experience revealed deep gaps in what was possible with iOS — particularly around keyboard input, reliable automation, and on-premises control.
The initial stf_ios_support project brought
basic iOS device support to STF, but the limitations of the underlying tools
(WebDriverAgent, Appium) made reliable automation nearly impossible. ControlFloor
was created as a complete replacement — a purpose-built platform that doesn't
rely on fragile third-party automation frameworks.
The CFA Agent, ControlFloor's on-device automation component, was written entirely from scratch using Apple's XCTest framework directly. The keyboard automation system — with pre-mapped layouts for 12 keyboard types across 50+ locales — was designed from day one as a core capability, not an afterthought.
ControlFloor originally used go-ios for iOS device communication over USB — a project that David funded and collaborated on with its creator, Daniel Paulus. ControlFloor has since moved beyond go-ios, with proprietary tooling that provides deeper device integration and eliminates third-party dependencies for core device communication.
Built iOS device lab infrastructure using OpenSTF. Identified fundamental gaps in iOS automation tooling that would motivate ControlFloor.
Open-sourced iOS support for STF. Now the most-starred iOS device automation project in the ecosystem (163+ stars).
Initial version of ControlFloor released. Server and Provider architecture established. CFA Agent written from scratch using XCTest.
VidStream, UIInspector, Python API, and keyboard automation system developed. iOS 17+ RSD tunnel support added. Enterprise customers onboarded.
200+ Python API functions. 12 keyboard types, 50+ locales. Production deployments managing 100+ devices. Ongoing development and support.
Dry Ark has a strong history of contributing to the open source iOS automation
ecosystem. The stf_ios_support project remains
one of the most-used open source tools for iOS device farms, and the
ujsonin JSON parser library is available
in C, Go, and Perl implementations.
We believe in giving back to the community that has enabled our work. While ControlFloor itself is a commercial product, we continue to maintain and contribute to the open source projects that support the broader ecosystem.
Whether you're evaluating ControlFloor for your team or need custom consulting for your device automation challenges, we're here to help.
Control