How it works

A Northstar operator controls your robot from a VR headset. Your robot stays on your site and connects out to Northstar. Nothing at Northstar connects in to your network.

The partsCopy Anchor Link

What happens when the robot startsCopy Anchor Link

1. Enroll, once. arc enroll creates a certificate and a private key on the robot computer and registers the certificate with your account. The private key never leaves the robot. See Enroll.
2. Check in. Each time arc run starts or reconnects, the robot checks in with Northstar over HTTPS and proves who it is with that certificate. Northstar looks the certificate up, refuses a robot that is unknown or revoked, and otherwise gives the robot a relay. From then on the robot shows as Online in the console.
3. Connect. The robot opens a QUIC connection to its relay. The robot also checks the relay's certificate, so it only talks to Northstar's relay.
4. Wait. The robot sends video and arm state and waits for an operator. The arms do not follow anyone until an operator takes control.

What happens during a sessionCopy Anchor Link

1. A Northstar operator signs in to the web app and connects to your robot's relay.
2. Camera video goes from the robot to the relay and on to the operator's headset.
3. The operator's hand positions go to the relay. The relay turns them into joint commands and sends those to the robot over the connection the robot opened.
4. The robot applies the commands and reports the arm state back.
5. If the operator records an episode, the relay saves the camera views and the robot state and uploads them to Northstar's cloud storage, filed under your account. See Data collection.

When the session ends or the link drops, the arms hold their position. See Teleoperation for what you need on site.

What your network must allowCopy Anchor Link

The robot computer opens every connection itself. You do not need to open an inbound port, forward a port, or give the robot a public address.

Allow these outbound connections from the robot computer:

Things to check with your network team:

• Outbound UDP must be allowed. Many office firewalls allow web traffic only. If TCP 443 works and UDP is blocked, the robot checks in but cannot reach its relay. It can show as Online in the console for a few minutes, yet no session can start.
• Do not intercept TLS. The robot checks Northstar's certificate, and Northstar checks the robot's. A proxy that replaces certificates breaks both.
• Use a stable, low-latency link. A wired connection is better than WiFi. When the link is slow or drops, the arms stop and hold. They do not catch up later.

Ask Northstar for the current destination addresses if your firewall filters by address.

What is stored whereCopy Anchor Link