You're faced with a complex robotic malfunction. How can you efficiently manage your time to troubleshoot it?

The fastest way is to look for similar problems in Google. I am not kidding. To do things from scratch takes more time. You won't be productive by doing unless it is a challenge for your exams.

Perhaps the best way to shorten this process is: - Search for similar problems on Google or specialized robotics forums. Often, someone has already experienced the same problem and may have a solution ready. - Consult the manufacturer's documentation and FAQs, which often address common problems.

Be cognizant of how your malfunction is identified. An operator might say, "the internet isn't working" to describe a sensor failure -- they're just reporting a problem with the level of understanding they have. Perspective is everything: identifying if an issue is an isolated issue or is growing across your whole fleet completely changes your next course of action.

First look at the malfunction code if any, then shut down and restart the robot if that doesn't help determine if the problem is mechanical, electrical, or programming. Look for any cables out of place survey the area looking for anything on the floor like bolts, springs, oil etc. If electrical get your voltmeter and start trouble shooting to make sure the current going where it should or lack thereof. Start the elimination process, I have found that the robot diagnostics generally will point you in the right direction. In a production environment it is crucial to have spare parts to replace the defective part get the line up and running, then diagnose and repair or restock the part.

It's important to develop hypotheses and test them. Enure that what your fixing could actually cause the problem. Quite often I see people changing things without being able to explain the purpose and often further obscuring the real problem by creating more variables.

Always document your work as you may forget how to solve it again in the future. A good coder will always use comments where there is a difficult to understand. You too use the same logic to record many things that are easily forgettable and commit mistakes.

Documenting everything after the rapid assessment ensures that the troubleshooting process is efficient, transparent and repeatable, resulting in better time and resource management.

Take pictures as you disassemble, take screenshots as you code and communicate, write down any and all part/serial/error/ID numbers in text religiously. Remember, it's usually much easier to take it apart than to put it back together again without these cues.

One thing you should design into a system is a way to produce logs that can be "replayed" offline. This way you can see what's happening on free-body per se. Make it easy enough to use such that the first responder doesn't need to escalate it to a more expensive resource.

One thing you should design into a system is a way to produce logs that can be "replayed" offline. This way you can see what's happening on free-body per se. Make it easy enough to use such that the first responder doesn't need to escalate it to a more expensive resource.

Remember: every complex system that works is composed of smaller and simpler systems that also must work. Engineers have to be detectives. Make sure each sub-system operates as expected in isolation, examine each clue, and eliminate potential hypotheses one at a time.

You need not copy-paste the guidelines from the company page or from data sheet. Explain in your terms in simple break down parts, as it will be useful in team environment where your colleague can easily process the information instead of going fully through the data sheet.

As a robotics engineer and robotics educator, the key to troubleshooting is working through on a subsystem basis. Trying to integrate both hardware and software all at once will cost you hours trying to narrow down the problem, fundamentally working backwards to find the issue. Working from the ground up and slowly implementing functionalities is the best way to set yourself up for future success. If the system is already mostly built with multiple elements at play, separate your goal(s) into core functions, and then test each individually. This is especially important for projects with sensor fusion or features that must work in tandem. By breaking it down, we can better recognize where our error occurs in an efficient manner.

Always good to have spare parts. However make sure to carefully test each replacement component to ensure that it provides different (and correct!) functioning from the component being replaced before spending time and resources, to mitigate the hazard of making the problem worse through a bad replacement.

Swapping components is a simple but effective technique in electronics. Like batteries, and sensors and this works if you have developed an error-free code base.

Usually components that are most likely to melt are transistors, MOSFETs, op-amps and capacitors. Check the wattage (amps*volts) going through active switching components (including op-amps) and the thermal dissipation of the casing (degC/W). Make sure transistors, MOSFETs and op-amps have appropriate thermal management if temps go above spec (passive heat sinks will do fine usually, check their specs and account for additional room temperature). In the case of capacitors, burst capacitors will be obvious but any bulging capacitors may be a less obvious sign of malfunction. Make sure to buy capacitors from trusted manufacturers such as SONY or PANASONIC, as cheap brands often get their designs wrong (decreasing capacitor longevity).

While building robots, code and other aspects are usually tested for functionality, but what works once in code is likely to work again But it's hardware that gets affected most by real-life implementation

Always review your code multiple times before pushing it into the memory drive. Just flashing your memory multiple times will cause internal wear and tear and worst case you will lose the processor because of overclocking or errors in code.

If necessary, write a stripped-down program with only suspect or malfunctioning lines of code in it and test it in simulation or simple interaction modes to ensure it does what you want it to in all foreseeable cases.

Make sure to document the testing process properly. I suggest using Excel or Sheets (collaboratively if possible) and have multiple clear categories of issues you have tested and within each category the types of test. Your robot may work at a room temperature of 20 deg C, however raising the room temp to 25 deg C might stop it functioning. Good documentation will allow you to clearly identify the changing variable and hopefully revisit thermal management (just an example).

Troubleshooting is a skill that is not well taught. That means that counterintuitively, this is an area where reaching out to someone else with years of experience can significantly shorten the problem solving cycle. I keep a mental rolodex of people I turn to for problem solving tips and tricks in various areas. Every time I speak with them I learn something new.

Start with seasoned experts that understand the technology inside out, having put strategies in place beforehand to cover all possible eventualities, including complete swap outs where required. Means carrying a lot of high value equipment but your client will have presumably paid for a rapid response and premium support if it's a mission critical application. I had 20yrs fault finding experience that taught me to be prepared for any eventuality and keep a calm head when its all going pear shaped.

“Process of elimination”. To quickly identify the problem, start from the basic. By eliminating each root-cause you’ll be able to identify what’s the actual issue. First, understand whether it is mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, software or combination of both. Once you identify it then you’ll be able to analyze and resolve the issue. Always share your findings with others and document it. This will help in future troubleshooting.