Account and usage

The console is the website where you see your robots, your enrollment key and your hours. Northstar gives you its address together with your user ID.

Sign inCopy Anchor Link

1. Open the console. The sign-in page is headed "Sign in to ARC".
2. Enter the User ID and Password that Northstar gave you.
3. Select Sign in.

You stay signed in for up to 12 hours. After that the console shows "Your session ended. Sign in again."

You cannot create users or reset a password in the console. To add a user, remove one, or reset a password, ask Northstar.

The Robots pageCopy Anchor Link

Open Robots in the console. The page has the Robots table and your Enrollment key. Usage has its own page.

RobotsCopy Anchor Link

The table lists every robot in your account.

The states:

• Online. The robot is running arc run and has checked in with Northstar.
• Offline. The robot has not checked in. It may be powered off, arc run may not be running, or the network may be blocking it. See Troubleshooting.
• Revoked. The robot is no longer allowed to connect. It stays in the list.

If your account has no robots yet, the page shows the commands to add one in place of the table.

Revoke a robotCopy Anchor Link

Revoke a robot when it leaves your site, when its computer is replaced or lost, or when you want to be sure it cannot connect.

1. In the robot's row, select Revoke.
2. Read the confirmation and select Revoke robot.

The robot is disconnected right away. A session in progress on that robot ends, and a recording in progress is cut short. There is no undo. To bring the robot back, run arc enroll on it again. See Enroll.

Revoking a robot does not move its arms and is not a way to stop a moving robot. Use the emergency stop for that. See Teleoperation.

Enrollment keyCopy Anchor Link

The enrollment key is what lets a robot join your account. A robot presents it once, when you run arc enroll. Your account has one key at a time. Anyone who has the key can add a robot to your account, so treat it like a password.

On the Robots page, the Enrollment key section shows the first characters of the key, the date it was created and who created it. It has these buttons:

If the page says the key was created before keys could be shown again, there is no Show key button. Rotate the key to get one that you can view later.

Under the buttons, Add a robot shows the two commands to run on a new robot. Install and Enroll describe them.

Rotate the keyCopy Anchor Link

Rotate the key if it may have reached someone who should not have it.

1. Select Rotate key. The confirmation says how many robots will go offline.
2. Select Rotate key again to confirm.

What happens:

• The old key stops working right away.
• Every robot that enrolled with a key is revoked and disconnected. Sessions on those robots end.
• Robots marked "Registered by Northstar" are not affected.
• The page shows the new key and lists the robots that went offline. You can copy the key now or use Show key later.

Then enroll each robot again with the new key. See Enroll.

UsageCopy Anchor Link

Select Usage in the console. The usage page shows your billable hours for one month.

• Month picker. Previous month and Next month move one month at a time. You can also pick a month and select Show. You cannot pick a month in the future.
• Table. One row per robot that had a session in the month, with the number of sessions and the billable hours, and a Total row. A robot with no session in the month is not listed. If there were none, the page says "No sessions" for that month.
• Summary. The total billable hours and the number of sessions.
• Your billing measure. One sentence that says what you are billed for. See below.
• Your rate. Shown only if Northstar has entered an hourly rate for your account.

Hours are shown to two decimal places. 1.50 is one hour and thirty minutes.

Months are in UTC. A session counts in the month it started. A session that starts on the last evening of a month and runs past midnight UTC counts whole in the month it started. A session that is still running counts with its time so far.

How hours are countedCopy Anchor Link

A session is one control connection from an operator to one of your robots. It starts when the operator's control connection opens and ends when it closes.

Time is measured only while the session is connected and the robot is connected. If the robot drops off during a session, the clock stops until it is back. Time is measured in whole seconds.

During a session, four times are measured:

Your contract with Northstar sets which of these is billed:

• Connected time. The time a control session was connected to a robot.
• Teleoperation time. The time the arms were actively teleoperated.
• Recording time. The time spent recording.

With teleoperation time or recording time, your contract may also add policy time. Connected time already includes it. Under teleoperation time or recording time, each session counts for no more than the time it was connected.

The sentence on the usage page says which measure applies to your account and whether policy time is added. It starts with "You are billed for". The page shows billable hours only, not the four separate times.

A session counts for the account that the robot belonged to when the session started.

What only Northstar can changeCopy Anchor Link

Ask Northstar to:

• add or remove a user, or reset a password
• change your billing measure, whether policy time is added, or your rate
• suspend or reopen your account

If your billing terms change, the usage page recalculates every month with the new terms, past months included.