Kb184

Emulab FAQ: Testbed Operations: How are robot experiment swap-ins handled?

Automatic charging stations for the Garcia robots are not yet available, so we have to manually give them a hand at swap-in and swap-out time. Following are some details.

Note: there is a separate mailing list, "robocops", to split off any robot-experiment related messages to relevant people.

> So the current plan is that robots are turned off between experiments?

Well, I suppose we should leave them on for a little while after the experiment has swapped out, in case the same person wants to try something else.

> I guess I assumed they were turned on in the morning and off again in the
> evening.  Or do their batteries not last that long?

They don't :(

> Speaking of batteries, someone should tell The Rest of Us how to
> change/charge batteries.

Oh, duh, I forgot about that... It's probably easier to show in person... Basically, you turn off the robot, unhook the top by pushing in on the white bushings that hold up the plexiglass and disconnect the battery cable.

>   Do we have like 5 spare batteries so that there is always a
> replacement charged up?

Yep, new batteries are on a shelf in Dan's cube, and leave dead batteries on the desk next to the chargers.