This guide is intended to help customers update to the latest version of Robots4Autism, which includes support for our newest features.
Table of Contents
3.2 Release Information
The 3.2 release of our website, companion apps, and robot clients is intended to untether teachers and facilitators needing to be present with their students together in order to conduct lessons. This release enables students and facilitators to continue using the Robots4Autism curriculum while in different locations. This provides a safe and remote learning experience.
This release introduces our Avatar based milo robot, to be used in situations where a student is at home and cannot be physically present with the Milo robot. This update allows for a facilitator to select an Avatar of Milo to be used in lieu of a robot in these situations. Note that use of this feature remotely would usually also require a video chat session (Zoom, Chime, Webex, etc.) to be established between student & facilitator so that the facilitator can monitor the students progress.
New simplified pairing processes for robots & tablets:
Updated and online robots registered to an organization will automatically appear in the list of available robots.
The RoboKind Companion App 3.0 (student mode) no longer requires a facilitator log in. Student tablets can be easily connected to via a one time pair code during your students first lesson works in person or remotely!
Existing RoboKind Legacy Customers
If you have previously been implemented on our 2.0 platform (at portal.robokind.us), then please use the following document to migrate before returning to this document. RK Central 3.0 Platform - Pre migration check list
To ensure a continued ability to teach lessons, Robokind legacy customers presently on the portal.robokind.us site must not update their robots and companion software outside of the process defined in the RK Central 3.0 Platform - Pre migration check list.
Formal support for our legacy platform will end at the end of the 2020/2021 school year as we seek to have all organizations and students be able to take advantage of our latest features.
Updating to RoboKind 3.2
Customers who have previously migrated to our 3.0 platform are eligible and encouraged to upgrade to our 3.2 application release by following the steps below.
Updating RK Central, Tablets and Robots to 3.2
An organizational admin should check the list of Robots that appears under their account under central.robokind.com and the Organization List screen and compare to the organization's active robots. How-to Find a robot's serial number
Teacher accounts do not have access to view the list of robots in RK Central.
If the list of robots is incorrect or if the Robots & Avatars section is missing, please submit a support ticket at https://www.robokind.com/support using the contact us link at the bottom of the page. Please include the exact serial number(s) of robots to be added or removed.
2. In the RoboKind Central portal at https://central.robokind.com, we recommend using the … button (3 dots) to the right of each robot to assign a friendly Alias. As an example, if a robot is dedicated to a specific classroom, the name of that classroom might be a good alias. An itinerant robot that travels between schools might be assigned an alias of the teacher/facilitator who is using that robot.
Tip: We also encourage labeling the robot in some fashion with it’s assigned alias.
3. On each robot, choose Utilities - Update Software and ensure that it completes successfully. See How-to Update the Robot for details and troubleshooting.
4. Only after all robots are updated successfully, delete the RoboKind Companion App 3 from each iPad, and then reinstall the application with the same name from the AppStore. RoboKind Companion App 3 Installation and Update Guide (iPads)
Facilitator Tablet First Time Setup
Open the newly installed RoboKind 3.0 application.
Choose yes to allow camera access if prompted.
Select Facilitator mode.
Login to the tablet with the same facilitator credentials used to log in at https://central.robokind.com.
If necessary, you can visit https://central.robokind.com and reset your password.
If prompted, create a 4 digit pin for your account.
Use the Add New Tablet button
Warning: Pairing codes expire within 10 minutes, so pause at this point if the student tablet is not already updated and ready.
Assign a Nickname or alias for the student tablet, and click Generate Code.
We recommend a Nickname or alias that describes the scope of the students that might be sharing that tablet, for example “Classroom A”.
We recommend labeling a tablet according to the nickname that has been assigned to it.
The 6 digit code that is provided after tapping Generate Code will be needed during the Student tablet setup.
After the pairing code has been written down, click the Back button.
Student Tablet First Time Setup
New in this release, a facilitator login is no longer required on a student tablet.
Note that a student tablet can be paired just once and then shared among multiple students.
On the student tablet, open the newly updated or installed RK Central 3.0 application.
Choose yes to allow camera access if prompted
Select Student mode. No login is required.
If prompted for camera access, choose Allow. (This is used in certain lessons of the emotional modules)
Enter the 6 digit numeric code generated during the Facilitator setup and click Connect.
Starting a Lesson
From the facilitator tablet, select the alias of the student tablet in the column on the left.
In the Select a Robot column on the right, you may select a robot or Use Virtual Avatar. If you select the virtual avatar option, both you and the student will see a friendly virtual version of Milo teaching each lesson.
If you are running a lesson with a physical robot and the robot is not appearing in the list, troubleshooting steps would include:
Make sure that Milo is powered on
Run a network test and ensure the robot is connected.
If this is the first time using the robot after updating to the latest version, then the robot may need to be updated from Utilities - Update Software.
Restart the robot and wait 5 minutes.
If the above do not resolve the issue, please submit a support ticket using https://www.robokind.com/support and the contact us link at the bottom of the page. Be sure to include the serial number of the robot. How-to Find a robot's serial number
On the Select Classroom page, select the classroom and student who will be taking the lesson.
If you have selected “Virtual Avatar” the facilitator and student will see a virtual representation of Milo.
If you have selected a physical robot, then virtual milo will not be shown from either tablet.
On the facilitators tablet, use the side bar menu to access tools such as stopping a lesson or switching to a calm down tool
Changing Devices
If between lessons you wish to change which student tablet or robot/avatar is selected, then note the following instructions.
During a lesson, you cannot change devices. To change devices, you must first end lesson and capture the students progress to that point.
From the side bar menu of the facilitator tablet, choose the Change Devices button.
Important: If the student tablet no longer appears as available after using the change devices command, then instruct the student or parent to select the Student button.
Documentation
RoboKind Central for Administrators
RoboKind Central for Teachers & Aide Account Roles
RoboKind Companion App 3 Installation and Update Guide (iPads)
Coming soon
Customers who update to our latest software versions will also soon be able to benefit from additional features including:
Video Chat built into the RoboKind Companion App
New reporting from the RK Central web portal.