Advanced Robot Networking Guide

Owned by Daniel Crosby (Deactivated)
Last updated: Aug 11, 2022
6 min read

This guide is intended for the technical/IT team of customers who need to connect their robot to a WiFi network with Certificates, or by configuring a USB drive to more quickly configure large numbers of robots.

For enterprise WiFi that does not require certificates (username & password), see RoboKind Quick Robot Network Setup Guide.

Pre-requisites

Some organizations have restrictions and blocking preventing the use of USB thumb drives - be sure to get appropriate approvals and take virus scanning precautions before using this method.

Thumb Drive based WiFi setup without Certificates

The recommended method for configuring RoboKind R25 robots for wireless is to use the Robot chest screen, so the following instructions are intended only for situations where very large numbers of robots need to be configured. RoboKind Quick Robot Network Setup Guide

  1. Plug in and turn on the robot, which will be needed later in the instructions.

  2. Insert your empty, virus scanned thumb drive into the computer being used to configure the thumb drive, and make note of the drive letter.

WPA or WPA2 Personal (Bulk configuration (10+ robots) with USB drive)

  1. Open this wifi.conf file in a text editor (such as notepad)

2. Replace the YOUR_NETWORK_SSID and YOUR_NETWORK_KEY fields with the proper values (Case sensitive).

WPA or WPA2 Enterprise with Username/Password with USB drive)

  1. Contact your information technology team to create a network account with appropriate security permissions and network access. RoboKind Networking Requirements and Security Considerations

2. Open this file in a text editor, and replace the YOUR_NETWORK_SSID, ROBOT'S NETWORK USERNAME, and ROBOT'S NETWORK PASSWORD fields.

3. Save the modified file in the root directory of a USB thumb drive that is blank and formatted as FAT32.

4. Check to make sure that the file saved on the thumb drive is named wifi.conf. If the text editor adds an extension such as .TXT, it will not work.

5. Eject the USB thumb drive, but do not yet insert it into the robot.

6. Verify that the robot is powered on, within range of the desired 2.4Ghz WiFi network, and on the MAIN MENU screen.

7. Plug the USB drive into the robot’s rear panel.

8. Upon successful configuration, the robot will speak it’s IP Address.

If the robot does not respond to the drive being inserted within 30 seconds, then see Troubleshooting - USB Flash Drive.

9. From the robot, run a network test. How-To Test Companion App & Robot Network Connectivity

Thumb Drive WiFi Setup with Certificates

  1. Contact your information technology team to create a network account with appropriate security permissions and network access. RoboKind Networking Requirements and Security Considerations

  2. The robots in question must be on robot software release 3.4.0 or later. How-to check your robots software version How-to Update the Robot

  3. Generate the certificates required for step 3 for the given network account. Supported certificate formats are PEM (recommended) or DER. PKCS#12/.cer files are not supported.

  4. Save the following files to your blank, virus scanned thumb drive.

    1. The CA certificate file (if available), this will usually have a .PEM extension

    2. The client certificate file , this will usually have a .PEM extension

    3. The private key file. (If this does not come in a file, you can create a file named PRIVATE_KEY.key, and save the text into the file).

  5. Plug in and turn on the robot, which will be needed later in the instructions.

  6. Extract the 2 files in the following .ZIP file to the thumb drive. (wifi.conf and autorun.r25)

7. Edit the wifi.conf file on the thumb drive with a text editor such as notepad.

8. Make the following edits in the wifi.conf file

  • SSID: In the quotes, update with the name of the network SSID.

  • username: Replace ROBOT'S_NETWORK_USERNAME with the account which the robot will be authenticating.

  • ca-cert line: Replace CA_CERT_FILENAME.pem with the exact file name and extension of the CA Cert file saved on the thumb drive.

  • client-cert line: Replace CLIENT_CERT_FILENAME.pem with the exact file name and extension of the client cert file saved on the thumb drive. This will usually have a .pem extension, which should be included.

  • private-key line: Replace PRIVATE_KEY_FILENAME.key with the exact file name and extension of the private key file saved on the thumb drive. This will usually have a .key extension, which should be included.

  • private-key-password line: Replace PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD with the exact, case sensitive password.

9. Verify and save all changes to the thumb drive.

10. Verify that the robot is powered on, within range of the desired 2.4Ghz WiFi or 5GHz WiFi network, and on the MAIN MENU screen or on the initial WiFi setup screen.

11. Make sure the robots volume is at least at 50% (volume controls on the back). Plug the USB drive into the robot’s rear panel (removing the 5Ghz adapter if necessary). If the USB drive is formatted as FAT32 and the script is working, the robot should announce it’s progress in starting and completing the configuration. Make note of any messages spoken by the robot. If no sound comes from the robot, please see Troubleshooting - USB Flash Drive.

12. On the robot’s chest screen, choose:

  • Utilities

  • Network

  • Network Info

  • WiFi (button is on the 2nd row up)

make sure the 2nd line reads “Name:” and the SSID of the desired network. If this fails, reboot the robot and check again.

13. From the robot, run a network test. How-To Test Companion App & Robot Network Connectivity