iRobot Ava 500 Service manual

IT Administrator’s
Guide
Version 1.2
January 24, 2015

© 2014, 2015 iRobot Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
iRobot and Ava are registered trademarks of iRobot Corporation.
iPad and iPhone are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc.

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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1
Conventions................................................................................................................................................ 1
Comments and Suggestions....................................................................................................................... 2
New in This Revision ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Ava 500 Overview ..................................................................................................................... 5
About the Ava 500...................................................................................................................................................7
Ava 500 System Infrastructure ........................................................................................................................ 8
How the Ava 500 Works .................................................................................................................................... 9
The Ava 500 Cloud Service ............................................................................................................................ 10
Components and Terminology..............................................................................................................................11
External Components ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Internal Components ...................................................................................................................................... 13
Configuration and Maintenance ............................................................................................ 15
Data Communications and Security......................................................................................................................17
Data Communications .................................................................................................................................... 17
Wireless Configuration ................................................................................................................................... 19
Aruba ............................................................................................................................................................. 19
Cisco ............................................................................................................................................................. 19
Wireless Encryption ........................................................................................................................................ 20
Wireless Authentication ................................................................................................................................. 21
Proxy Support .................................................................................................................................................. 22
System Configuration............................................................................................................................................23
Configuring and Managing the Cisco EX60 .................................................................................................. 24
Configuring the Ava 500 App ......................................................................................................................... 25
First Time Installation .................................................................................................................................. 25
Updating the Ava 500 App from 1.0 to 1.1 or Higher................................................................................ 26
Software Upgrades ...............................................................................................................................................27
Ava 500 Robot ................................................................................................................................................. 27
Ava 500 Cloud Service .................................................................................................................................... 27
Ava 500 Control Application .......................................................................................................................... 27
Set up Automatic Upgrades ........................................................................................................................ 27
Use Manual Updates .................................................................................................................................... 27
Cisco EX60 ....................................................................................................................................................... 28

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Site Changes After Installation..............................................................................................................................29
Name Changes ................................................................................................................................................ 29
Destination or Preset Changes ...................................................................................................................... 29
Layout Changes .............................................................................................................................................. 30
If You Are Moving ............................................................................................................................................ 31
The Administrator Console ...................................................................................................................................32
Robots .............................................................................................................................................................. 33
Sessions ........................................................................................................................................................... 38
Users ................................................................................................................................................................. 39
Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................................... 43
Rebooting the Ava 500 .........................................................................................................................................45
Understanding Ava 500 Availability......................................................................................................................48
Immediate Session (Teleport Now) Behavior ............................................................................................... 48
Active Session Behavior ................................................................................................................................ 48
Remote User Symptoms.......................................................................................................................................50
Cannot Log In............................................................................................................................................ 50
The App does not respond........................................................................................................................ 50
When a session starts, the video conference call is not established........................................................ 50
No video at the remote user’s video endpoint .......................................................................................... 51
Video quality is poor.................................................................................................................................. 51
No audio.................................................................................................................................................... 51
Ava 500 is not currently accessible........................................................................................................... 51
Ava 500 is not available............................................................................................................................ 52
Local Symptoms....................................................................................................................................................53
The Ava 500 display reads “Connection Issues: Not connected to management server”........................ 53
The LEDs are flashing red, and the display says “Assistance Required: Disabled due to
Hardware Fault” ........................................................................................................................................ 54
The Ava 500 display reads “Assistance required: Not localized on map” ................................................ 54
The Ava 500 appears to be without power............................................................................................... 54
Volume and Mute Behavior....................................................................................................................... 55
The Ava 500 Configuration Interface....................................................................................................................56
Connecting and Configuring Your Laptop ................................................................................................... 57
Accessing the Configuration Interface ......................................................................................................... 60
Reporting on or Changing the WGB Configuration ................................................................................. 61
Changing the EX60 Administrative Password .......................................................................................... 64
Appendix A: Support Materials ............................................................................................. 66

Ava 500 IT Administrator’s Guide Introduction
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Introduction
The Ava 500 IT Administrator’s Guide contains information relevant to the initial implementation of an Ava 500,
and also to its ongoing operation.
In general the Ava 500 requires two supporting roles:
•The Ava 500 caretaker is someone located at the same site as the Ava 500, who can roll the Ava 500 back
to its charging station if necessary, and perform some basic maintenance functions. The Ava 500 Caretaker’s
Poster is provided in Appendix A: Support Materials.
•The Ava 500 IT administrator is someone who understands the infrastructure supporting the Ava 500, who
can provide an initial level of support in case of problems, and who will manage all Ava 500s deployed at the
customer’s location(s).
Information in the Ava 500 IT Administrator’s Guide includes:
•Ava 500 Overview: High level description of the Ava 500, how it interacts with your IT infrastructure, and how
people use it.
•Data Communications and Security:Detailed information about how the Ava 500 communicates, what is
required for an Ava 500 to operate at a site, and the security methods employed.
•System Configuration: How the various components of an Ava 500 system work together and details on the
configuration of specific components.
•Software Upgrades: An overview of how upgrades to the various software components are handled.
•Using the Ava 500 Administrator Console:A user guide to the Ava 500 Administrator Console web
application.
•Troubleshooting: Guidance on solving simple problems and advice on when to contact Technical Support.
Conventions
Throughout the manual the following conventions are used:
This is a warning. If the person using the information ignores or violates this instruction, serious
damage could result to the product or injury to the person.
This is an alert. If the person using the information ignores or violates these instructions, some
minor negative consequences could occur.

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This calls out supplemental information or information of particular note.
Chapter or section headings in green and underlined are dynamic links to that chapter or section.
Comments and Suggestions
The Ava 500 team welcomes your comments and suggestions for changes or additions to improve this manual.
Please provide them to the iRobot service organization.
New in This Revision
The version 1.2 release includes the following changes:
Ava 500 Configuration and Operation
•The Ava 500 now supports Cisco TC 7.3.0 as well as TC 6.3.3. These releases address the Shellshock
vulnerability (also known as the Bash bug).
•An improved configuration interface allows you to evaluate and correct some internal configuration issues
locally (see the Error! Reference source not found. section).
•A number of issues have been corrected:
•The occasional duplicate video connection is no longer created.
•User email addresses are maintained when the record is edited.
•Ava 500 operation has been improved:
•The Ava 500 returns to the charging station after it has been disconnected from the Cloud Service for 30
minutes.
•Navigation through doorways has been improved.
•Response to dynamic obstacles is smoother.
Ava 500 IT Administrator Console
Unless otherwise noted, the following changes are documented in this guide, in the section on The
Administrator Console.
•Internet Explorer versions 10 and higher are now supported.
•A new Robot Details page provides information about the robot health, installed software, and other
information.
•iRobot now has the ability to take the Ava 500 Cloud Service instance off-line for maintenance. A scheduled
maintenance period is reflected on the Robots page.
•The ability to delete a user account has been added to the User Details interface.
•Individuals are now assigned the role of either Administrator or User.
•Those with the role of Administrator can manage other administrators as well as manage those with the
User role.

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•Administrators no longer need to have a separate account to use for logging in to the Ava 500 Control
App. Instead, a checkbox on the User Details interface determines whether the Administrator account is
also used to log in to the Control App.
•Secure password criteria are enforced when creating new passwords, both in the Administrator Console and
the Control App. A control in the Administrator Console automatically generates a secure password.
•A password control allows you to show or hide the password.
•Usernames are no longer restricted to alphanumeric characters but can contain the printable ASCII set.
Furthermore the length of a username has been expanded to 80 characters. These two changes support
using the individual’s email address as the username.
Ava 500 Control Application
Unless otherwise noted, the following changes are documented in the Ava 500 Remote User Guide.
•A new area on the bottom of the track pad screen allows users to move sideways without changing the
direction they are facing.
•If a space has more than one entry point, each can be defined as a destination. Spaces with multiple outside
destinations include a subhead describing the specific destination.
•To improve the experience for users with access to several sites, under some circumstances the destination
list opens with the site lists collapsed.
•Proxy authentication is now supported (requires additional login information, see section Configuring the
Ava 500 App and the updated Installation Guide in Appendix A: Support Materials).
•The end of session audible signal, which sounds if the user is in the App and the session is about to end, now
repeats every 30 seconds until the user responds.

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Ava 500 Overview

Ava 500 IT Administrator’s Guide About the Ava 500
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About the Ava 500
The iRobot Ava 500 Video Collaboration Robot (Ava 500) complements an existing fixed telepresence solution -
such as room-based systems, executive and personal desktop units, and soft clients for PCs, smartphone and
tablets - by offering users mobile capabilities that allow them to participate in meetings in areas where video
conferencing solutions are unavailable or impractical, and that allow for conversations to continue into locations
outside of offices and conference rooms.
The iRobot Ava 500 Video Collaboration Robot brings together iRobot’s autonomous mobile robotics platform with
HD video and audio video conferencing through a built-in Cisco TelePresence™ EX60 to offer an enterprise-class
solution that enables users from anywhere in the world to instantly connect with people anywhere in the robot’s
location.

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Ava 500 System Infrastructure
A high-level view of the Ava 500 system infrastructure is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Ava 500 System Infrastructure
Each Ava 500 is made up of a Cisco EX60 video conferencing “head” and a robot body. The Ava 500
communicates through a wireless connection from a Cisco AP1600e access point in the robot body to the
customer’s wireless network. From there video conferencing is managed through the enterprise’s video
conferencing infrastructure, while the Ava 500 is managed through a secure WebSocket connection over the
Internet to the iRobot Ava 500 Cloud Service.
Remote users are equipped with remote stations consisting of both a control device, such as an iPad, and a video
endpoint:
•The control device runs the iRobot Ava 500 Control Application (Ava 500 App), which connects with the Ava
500 through the Ava 500 Cloud Service.
•The video endpoint can be a standards-based executive desktop device, a conference room system, or a
computer running a video software client such as Cisco’s Jabber.

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How the Ava 500 Works
When an Ava 500 is installed at a customer location, part of the configuration process is to map the robot’s
operating area, or site. During this activity, the Ava 500 learns its operating environment and creates a realistic
topology map of the site. This is translated into an annotated floor plan with defined destinations that is displayed
in the Ava 500 App. The Ava 500 App provides functionality that allows the user to:
•Initiate an “ad hoc” meeting through any available Ava 500
•Schedule a meeting for a specific destination at a specific time in the future
•Navigate to one of a list of defined destinations
•Navigate to any accessible area on the map of the site
Users with multiple video endpoints available, for example a desktop device when in the office and a laptop with
Jabber on the road, can specify which endpoint to use for the meeting.
At the time of the scheduled meeting, the Ava 500 Cloud Service assigns a robot from the available pool. The
robot travels to the meeting location and waits. The remote user checks in to the session, and then the Ava 500
calls the remote user’s video endpoint. The remote user answers the call and the session begins. The remote
user’s audio and video communications are handled through the Cisco EX60 and the remote user’s video
endpoint. The Ava 500 speaker volume can be controlled at the meeting location, to accommodate local
conditions.
When the meeting is over, the remote user ends the session and the Ava 500 automatically returns to its charging
station to recharge for the next user. Built-in obstacle detection and obstacle avoidance (ODOA) capabilities,
which leverage multiple sensors in the robot body, ensure that the Ava 500 will not bump into people or objects in
its path. Furthermore, if the most direct path to its destination is blocked, the Ava 500 will search for and navigate
through an alternative path, if one is available.
The Ava 500 App also provides remote users with other navigation capabilities. They can touch a location on the
application map and go there. For meetings in larger conference rooms, they can touch a preset location in the
room, for example in front of the white board or at the conference table, and go there. Finally, users can manually
drive the Ava 500 using a touchpad interface in the Ava 500 App.
Through the Ava 500 App, the user can also look up and down, turn to see what is on either side or behind the
Ava 500, move to one side or the other, and stand by raising the height of the Cisco EX60 (Figure 2a) or sit by
lowering it (Figure 2b).
a) b)
Figure 2. Remote User Standing (a) and Sitting (b)

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The Ava 500 Cloud Service
Ava 500s are managed through the iRobot Ava 500 Cloud Service. The iRobot Ava 500 Cloud Service manages
the resource pool of robots, tracks and manages robot scheduling, monitors robot health, and provides error
reporting capabilities. When the Ava 500 is in use it is in constant communications with the Ava 500 Cloud
Service. For example, the Ava 500 encounters an obstacle and communicates that fact to the Ava 500 Cloud
Service. The Ava 500 Cloud Service sends a notification to the remote user’s Ava 500 App. The remote user can
then choose to begin a video conference session immediately so that he or she can see what the problem is and
perhaps ask someone nearby to help.
The Ava 500 Cloud Service stores activity logs, reservation information, user information, and robot information.
Through a separate Administrator Console application, customer IT Administrators connect with the Ava 500
Cloud Service to see robot health indicators, track reservations, and modify users and their information.

Ava 500 IT Administrator’s Guide Components and Terminology
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Components and
Terminology
External Components
The Ava 500 consists of a robot body with a Cisco EX60 installed on it (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Ava 500 Front
•Volume/mute controls: A panel of buttons that allow a local user to raise and lower speaker volume as well
as mute the speakers.
•Panning sensor module:Consists of 3D imagers and sonar detectors. Normally the sensor module is facing
front. The array pans (rotates) if the Ava 500 is trying to sense a path around an obstacle or otherwise orient
itself to objects close to the robot.
•LIDAR gap: The space around the base of the robot that displays the lights from the robot’s LEDs, and that
provides access for the Ava 500’s Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) laser system through an opening in
Panning sensor
module
LIDAR gap
Cisco EX60
Volume/mute
controls

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the front of the robot. The Ava 500 uses the LIDAR system both to map the location and to navigate over
longer distances, such as down a hallway.
The Ava 500 body refers to the robot without the EX60 installed. The body consists of a torso and a base. The
back includes a stop button and handle on the torso, and the service compartment and charging station connector
plate on the base (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Ava 500 Back
•Stop button: When the stop button is pushed in, the Ava 500 cannot move autonomously or be driven
manually by a remote user. Push the button to engage it, twist to release. Use the stop button to prevent the
Ava 500 from driving autonomously if it recovers from a problem while you are pushing it back to the charging
station.
Because the stop button impedes wheel rotation, the Ava 500 is harder to move. If there is no
chance that the robot will be driven, for example it has a hardware fault, pushing the stop button is
not necessary.
Do not push or release the stop button while the Ava 500 is engaged with the charging station.
Stop button
Handle
Service
Compartment
Charging
Station
Connector
Plate
Rocker Switch

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•Handle: Use to pull or push the Ava 500. A label with the robot’s serial number is underneath the handle
(Figure 5).
Figure 5. Ava 500 Label
When moving the Ava 500, be careful not to put your foot on the charging plate.
Do not use the handle to lift the Ava 500.
•Service compartment: Contains the power button, the access port for direct connection with the robot’s
central processing unit (base CPU), and a socket to connect a modular power cord.
•Charging station connector plate: Engages with the charging station.
•Rocker Switch: Mounted underneath the top LIDAR plate, this switch controls power to the Ava 500’s
batteries. When this switch is on, the Ava 500’s batteries can charge, even if the robot is otherwise powered
off through the power button in the service compartment.
Internal Components
This section reviews the internal components of the Ava 500:
•LEDs
•Base CPU
•AC power board
•PCBA assembly
•Z-lift
•Access point
•Camera tilt mechanism
LEDs in the LIDAR gap provide information about the state of the Ava 500 (Table 1).
Table 1. LED Colors and Patterns
If the LEDS are
It means the Ava 500 is
Solid white Traveling or waiting for an obstacle to clear.
Flashing yellow Going through a door or waiting for a door to open.
Solid red Motionless with its stop button engaged. It will not move in this condition.
Flashing red Experiencing a system problem. It will not move in this condition.
Fast brightening/fading white Connected to its charging station.

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Slow brightening/fading white Idle.
Flashing green Rebooting.
The slow brightening/fading cycle is often referred to as “breathing.”
The Ava 500 CPU in the upper base is the brains of the robot. The base CPU is like a computer. It contains the
internal operating system software, and stores logs, maps, and other information. During installation, a field
service engineer will connect directly to the CPU through the access port in the service compartment.
A Z-lift in the torso raises and lowers the Cisco EX60. A camera tilt mechanism is installed on the EX60 before it
is mounted onto the robot (Figure 6). It moves the EX60’s camera up and down.
Figure 6. Camera Tilt Mechanism Being Installed on the EX60
Finally, a Cisco AP1600e access point configured as a workgroup bridge (WGB) is provided in the back of the
torso. The WGB handles communication with your wireless network.

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Configuration and
Maintenance