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Monitoring and Managing Operations

The Operations panel is where you watch your operations run and control them. Open it from the PathLab toolbar with the Operations button. Each operation you've created appears as a card; expand a card to see its steps, its robots, and its controls.

If nothing is running yet, the panel shows No active operations — operation feedback appears here as soon as an operation is running.

Reading an operation at a glance

Each operation card shows, without expanding:

  • Name and status. A status badge tells you where the operation stands:

    Status Meaning
    Running The operation is active and dispatching robots.
    Paused You've paused it; robots hold until you resume.
    Blocked No robot can currently take the next step (check the per-robot reasons).
    Stopped The operation has been stopped and its progress reset.
    Completed / Done All the work (including any final steps) is finished.
    Error / Failed Something went wrong; check the robots and faults.

  • Robot tally. A quick count of robots on the job: Total, how many are Active (working), Idle (assigned but waiting), and Waiting (held for you to release).

If you have several operations, use the up/down arrows on the left of each card to set their priority order — operations higher in the list get first claim on robots that qualify for more than one.

Steps

Expand an operation to see its Steps as a grid. Each row is one step in the job:

Column What it tells you
# The step's position in the sequence.
Name The step's name.
Runs How many times the step has run so far.
Runs Left How many runs remain, if the step has a cap (otherwise —).
Geo Left How much of the step's area or route is still to be done, if applicable (otherwise —).
Robots How many robots are on this step right now.

A step turns green while robots are working on it, and blue with a Complete badge once it's finished.

If a step uses a flexible location, a Set Spot button lets you place that spot on the map: click Set Spot (it reads Waiting…), then click the map where you want it.

To clear a single step's progress without resetting the whole operation, click Reset Step…, then click the step you want. You'll be asked to confirm; counters for that step are cleared, and any robot already mid-task on it finishes naturally.

Robots

The Robots section lists every robot on the operation and what each is doing:

Column What it tells you
Robot The robot's name — click it to open its detail view.
Current The step the robot is working now (or Unassigned).
Next The step it's lined up for next, and its place in line.
Status Why a robot isn't proceeding, in plain language (see below).

A robot with a problem is flagged with a colored edge — red for a robot that's blocked, green for one that's busy on another mission, and orange for one waiting on you.

What a robot's status means

When a robot can't take its next step, the Status column tells you why:

Status What it means
Offline The robot isn't connected.
Not accepting missions The robot is connected but isn't currently taking work.
Mission Active The robot is busy with another mission and will rejoin when it's free.
Awaiting Release The robot finished its step and is holding for you to release it (see Finish below).
Low battery / Low fuel The robot is below a prerequisite you set.
Battery not low enough / Fuel not low enough The robot is above a maximum prerequisite — it doesn't need this job (typical for charge/refuel).
Wrong GPS fix / Position too old The robot's positioning doesn't meet the prerequisite.
Missing capability: … The robot isn't equipped for this step.
Too far away The robot is too distant from the step to take it.
Waiting on: … An earlier step has to finish first.
No spot available There's no open spot at the location right now.
Awaiting command ack The robot was just sent a command and hasn't confirmed yet.
Status not reported The robot hasn't reported the information needed to decide.

Most of these clear on their own as conditions change — a robot comes back online, finishes its other mission, or refuels. Others are a cue to act: a Missing capability robot doesn't belong on the job, and an Awaiting Release robot is waiting for you.

Adding and removing robots

  • Add Robot — add an available robot to the running operation; pick it from the dropdown of robots not already on the job.
  • Remove Robot — take a robot off the operation. Click it, then click the robot to remove and confirm. Click Cancel to leave this mode without removing anyone.
  • Finish … — when a robot shows Awaiting Release, this button releases it from the hold so it can move on.

Controlling an operation

Expand an operation card for its controls. Which buttons appear depends on the operation's current state:

Control What it does
Stop Pause a running operation. Robots hold until you resume.
Resume Resume a paused, blocked, or stopped operation.
Stop & Reset / Reset Stop the operation and clear all step progress, so the next start begins fresh. (Reads Reset when the operation is already stopped.)
Schedule… Set this operation to start, stop, or restart automatically. See Scheduling Operations.
Delete Remove the operation entirely.

Some controls depend on your role — operators with command permission can stop, resume, reset, and schedule; deleting requires the appropriate permission.