Leak warnings are an important diagnostic tool. Learn how to interpret them here.
Each joint of a Reach Robotics manipulator is held under vacuum, and contains climate sensors that read temperature, pressure and humidity.
This allows a user to monitor the internal climate for any sign of water ingress so they can retrieve the unit before too much damage occurs to the internal motors and electronics.
How do I tell if a leak warning has occurred?
If you are using Reach Control, you can see that an error has been flagged in the Status tab.
Clicking on the Status tab will show you status buttons for each configured unit. If an error has occurred, a number will show in the button as a count of how many times the error has occurred since the Health Panel was last opened.
Clicking the unit in the Status tab will open the Health Panel, where you can see what error has occurred. In the case of a leak warning, there will be a red ERROR bar next to Leak Status. Expand the Leak Status section using the ellipsis [...] to see climate data for each joint.
How do I interpret the climate data?
The three climate parameters measured are:
- Temperature (°C)
- Pressure (bar)
- Humidity (%)
For each parameter, you will see two values for each joint, and by comparing these two we can gauge the severity of the warning:
- Current - what the climate sensor currently reading in real-time
- Factory - what climate data was captured at the end of the manufacturing process
Pressure
We usually look at pressure first, as this gives us the best indication of if there has been a breach in any of the seals. In the example Health Panel above, we can see that the pressure has increased by 0.11-0.12 bar in all joints.
Temperature
Pressure is a function of temperature, so if the current temperature is particularly different to the factory temperature it can be useful to correct the pressure to provide a more accurate comparison, using the following formula:
For Joint A in the screenshot above, the corrected pressure would be 0.52 bar, so not a huge difference to the current reading.
Humidity
Finally, humidity helps us understand if there has been water ingress into the joints. Humidity is also a function of temperature (lower temperature = higher humidity), but is harder to correct for. As a general rule of thumb, if you see that the humidity has increased by 20+ percentage points above the factory value without a corresponding severe drop in temperature, it's a good sign that water has found its way into the joints, and you will most likely need to return the unit to Reach Robotics for inspection and repair (RMA process FAQ).
Is my arm damaged?
Not necessarily. If you don't see a significant increase in humidity, then an increase in pressure is likely to just be air ingress, which will not damage the internal components. For Alpha manipulators in particular, the small size of the O-rings and the roughness of the sealing surfaces (rated for sealing in water) can lead to a very low rate of air ingress, which may eventually trigger a leak warning, especially if the unit is stored and not used for an extended period of time.
However, a high rate of air ingress can indicate a damage seal or sealing surface. To monitor this, leave the arm in a climatically stable environment for 24 hours after seeing the leak warning. If the corrected pressure is still increasing after 24 hours, there is a risk of seal damage.
In all cases, you should contact Support with a screenshot of the Health Panel and details of the manipulator (serial number, use history) so we can assess the data and advise on next steps.