Robot Beeps
From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support
Pioneer (Pioneer 3-AT/P3AT, Pioneer 3-DX/P3DX), Peoplebot, Powerbot and Amigobot robots have a small piezo speaker (buzzer) on the side or top control panel which the robot's controller firmware ARCOS uses indicate certain states. (Older firmware versions such as AROS and P2OS included similar notifications as well, but not all of these.)
| Startup | When the robot is first turned on and the firmware successfully starts up, it plays a quick ascending scale of tones by octaves. | |
|---|---|---|
| Connect | When a program first connects to the robot successfully, it plays two ascending tones. | |
| Disconnect | When a program disconnects, it plays three descending tones. | |
| Low battery warning | If the battery voltage is below the warning limit set in the firmware configuration, the robot will emit a constant series of long high beeps, each beep lasting for about a second followed by about a second of silence. The battery status LED on the side/top control panel of the robot will have a green color at close to full charge, amber or yellow color as the battery voltage drops, and red color when it is critically low. The exact battery voltage is displayed by the ARIA 'demo' example program, in its "teleop" and "position" modes, and by some other example programs including MobileEyes when connected to most server examples. You may also hear a single battery warning beep or two if a heavy load is suddenly placed on the batteries which lowers their voltage briefly (e.g. trying to turn a Pioneer AT on a high-friction surface). | |
| Communication timeout warning | If a program connects to the robot, but does not send any command for a period of time (configurable), then the firmware's "Watchdog" mode is triggered, which stops the robot from moving, and emits a periodic series of short low beeps, each beep lasting about half a second followed by about a second of silence. This can also happen when a program exits but the serial port remains open. When the software begins communicating again the timeout will reset and the beeps will stop. Or, press the robot controller reset button to reset the controller and stop the beeps (any existing software connection will be closed.) Note: older firmware implementations (P2OS, AROS, etc.) and older ARCOS revisions did not include this beep warning. | |
| E-Stop button | If a robot has an emergency stop (E-Stop) button and E-Stop is engaged, it will emit a short high note, a short low note, then repeat. | |
| Stall | If a robot stalls (the wheels are unable to turn), motion will stop and it will emit two descending notes once. |
Any client program may also use the SAY command (#15) to play tunes. See Robot beep (SAY) example code for an example of using the SAY command in ARIA.
Sounds may be disabled in the firmware configuration or by a client using the SOUNDTOG command (#92), in which case no sounds will be played at all.
Seekur, Seekur Jr. and PatrolBot do not have piezo buzzers and cannot make these beep sounds. Check robot status on the LCD diagnostic display, or using software such as ARIA 'demo' or MobileEyes when connected to a server.
