Humanoid Robot Maintenance: Diagnostics and Fault-Finding › Module 1: Getting Started › Lesson 1.2

The Service Console in Ten Minutes

Free previewLesson 1.2 · about 30 minutes · 5 exercises

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Every console on this page is live: click in it and type

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By the end of this lesson you will be able to

  • read the console's prompt and type a command with an option
  • use status, joints, joint and battery to look at the robot
  • read the picture beside the console: green, amber, red and grey
  • leave a written record with note and read it back with maintlog
  • use help, the up arrow and the Tab key to type less and make fewer mistakes
Job card

It is your first morning at the Ashdown Robotics Workshop. Henry Wren hands you a tablet. “Before you touch anything, learn to talk to the console,” he says. “Look at Bramble, and leave a note so I know you have been.”

How the exercises work

Every console on this page is a live simulation of Bramble, the fictional robot. Click inside it, type a command and press Enter. Each exercise gives you a task and a console that starts in a fixed state. Do the task, then press Check my answer. The checker looks at the final state of the robot and at what you recorded, so any correct way of doing the task is accepted. Show solution is there if you get stuck, and Reset puts the console back as it started. The picture beside the console shows the robot, and it changes as you work.

The service console

A technician talks to a robot through a service console: a window where you type an instruction, press Enter and read the reply. It looks plain, but it is the tool that shows you exactly what the robot is doing. The line where you type looks like this:

eleanor@bramble $

It says who is using the console (eleanor, which is you) and which robot it is connected to (bramble). The $ means the console is ready for a command. In the lessons we show only the command, after a $, and the reply below it. You never type the $ yourself.

A command is a word, sometimes followed by a name or an option that changes what it does. Options begin with two dashes. For example, joints --group leg means “show the joints, but only the leg group”.

Looking at the whole robot: status

The first command of every job is status. It gives a summary of the whole robot. Try it below, then read each line.

Here is what each line means:

LineWhat it tells you
UnitThe robot's name, model and serial number
TimeThe workshop clock. In this course it only moves when you tell it to
PowerWhether the robot's electronics are on or off
Modelive means the joints can move. Locked out means they are disabled and braked (Module 4)
PositionStanding on the floor, or lifted on the hoist (Module 4)
BatteryThe charge, and whether it is charging, draining or idle
Hottest jointThe joint with the highest temperature right now
Active faultsHow many faults are showing, split into errors and warnings
FirmwareThe version of the robot's internal software
UptimeHow long the robot has been running since it started
ServiceThe hours worked since the last service, and how often a service is due

The picture beside the console

Under the console you can see a figure of the robot. Each dot is a joint. Green means the joint is fine, amber means it has a warning, red means it has a fault, and grey means the robot is switched off, so there is no reading. The chips under the figure say whether the robot is powered and whether it is live. The battery and fault panels sit beside it. Glance at the picture after every command: it is the quickest way to see what changed.

Looking closer: joints, joint and battery

joints prints one line for each of the 17 joints, with its temperature, the current it is drawing (in amps, written A) and its status. joint left-knee prints every reading for one joint. battery prints the battery's details. Modules 2 and 3 explain every number; for now, read them without worrying about the details.

$ joint left-knee
Joint: left-knee   (group: leg, bus: c)
Status: OK
Temperature:     43.7 C   (warning 65, shutdown 80)
Current:         3.4 A   (typical when working 3.4)
Encoder error:   0.2 deg   (warning 1.0, fault 2.0)
Vibration index: 0.8   (warning 4.0, fault 7.0)
Fan:             4183 rpm   (slow below 3000, stalled below 500)
Lubricant:       77 per cent   (low below 25)
Wear index:      14 per cent   (high from 75)
Comms retries:   2 per hour   (high from 20)
Connector:       responding
Active faults on this joint: none
$ battery
Charge:        78 %   (discharging at 6.2 A)
Voltage:       48.0 V   (12 cells)
Temperature:   31.0 C   (warning 45, fault 55)
Health:        94 %   (warning below 70)
Charge cycles: 212
Cell spread:   14 mV   (warning 60)
Lowest cell:   4.00 V   (fault below 3.00)

Notice that joint is followed by a name. If you spell the name wrongly, the console does not guess; it tells you so:

$ joint left-kne
error: no joint called "left-kne". Type joints to see the names.

Getting help: help

You do not have to remember every command. help lists them in groups, and help followed by a command name explains that command. It tells you the pattern to type (the usage) and what the command does.

Making a written record: note and maintlog

A good technician writes down what they found and did. The console keeps a maintenance log, which is a written record of the job. note adds a line to it. Put the text in quotation marks so that the console treats it as one piece:

$ note "Battery at 78 per cent, no faults"
Noted. The maintenance log now has 1 note.
$ maintlog
Actions this visit (0):
  none yet
Notes (1):
  10:30  Battery at 78 per cent, no faults

The maintlog command shows the actions you took and the notes you wrote. In this lesson you will use notes to record what you read, so that the checker can see your answers. In Lesson 8.4 you will learn what makes a note really useful to the next person.

Common mistake: a quotation mark that is never closed

$ note "Knee looks warm
error: a quotation mark was opened and never closed.
$ note "Knee looks warm"
Noted. The maintenance log now has 1 note.

The first command opened a quotation mark and never closed it, so the console could not tell where the note ended, and it refused. Nothing was saved. Close the quotation mark and try again. This is why the console tells you what went wrong instead of guessing.

Two keys that make you faster

Press the up arrow to bring back the previous command, so that you can run it again or change it. Press the Tab key after typing the first few letters of a command or a joint name, and the console completes it for you (joint left-k then Tab gives joint left-knee). If several names match, the console lists them so that you can type a few more letters. Both work in every console on this page. The commands clear (clean the screen) and history (list what you have typed) are there when you need them.

A simulation, not a real robot

Bramble and everything the console shows are a simulation made for teaching. The commands are simplified, the numbers are made up, and real robots have their own tools and their own manuals. What carries over to real work is the way of thinking: look first, read the evidence, be safe, change one thing at a time, and write it down.

Exercises

Each exercise starts with the console in a fixed state. Read the task, look at the robot, then record what you found with note. Press Check my answer when you are done.

Exercise 1 · Read the battery

Bramble has been out on a tour. Use status or battery to find its battery charge, and write it in a note, for example note "Battery 64" (use the real number).

Exercise 2 · Find the firmware version

Henry wants to know which firmware version Bramble is running. Find it and record it in a note.

Exercise 3 · Name the hottest joint

Oliver says that something felt warm after the tour. Use status to find which joint is the hottest, and write its name in a note.

Exercise 4 · Read one joint

Use joint left-elbow to look at the left elbow, and write its lubricant level (the number of per cent) in a note.

Exercise 5 · Check in with Henry

Write a note that says exactly Morning check done (with the quotation marks, the note text is what is between them), and then use maintlog to see that it was saved.

0 of 5 exercises completed

Quick check

Four questions to confirm the main ideas. Choose an answer to see the explanation.

In the prompt eleanor@bramble $, what does bramble tell you?

What does joints --group leg do?

In the picture beside the console, what does a grey joint mean?

You want to write down what you found. Which command adds a line to the maintenance log?

Summary

  • The service console is where a technician talks to the robot. The prompt shows who you are and which robot you are connected to.
  • status is the first command of every job. joints, joint <name> and battery show more detail.
  • In the picture beside the console, green means fine, amber a warning, red a fault and grey no reading.
  • note "text" writes to the maintenance log and maintlog reads it back. Keep the quotation marks closed.
  • help, the up arrow and the Tab key make the console easier to use.

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