adept technology SmartFleet EX, User Manual

Page: 9 / 54

Adept SmartFleet EX User’s Guide, Rev. A
Page 9 of 54
Chapter 1: Introduction
Ideally, when managing a fleet of robots, all of the robots operate identically. However, main-
taining identical configurations on each individual robot can be time-consuming. The Adept
Enterprise Manager™ and Adept Fleet Manager™ solve this problem by allowing you to man-
age map and configuration updates from a central communication point. These are then
pushed out to each robot in the fleet. They also allow the mobile robots to work within close
range of each other, without traffic issues or collisions.
This manual covers both the Adept Enterprise Manager and Adept Fleet Manager software,
and the Adept SmartFleet EX appliance.
1.1 Product Description
The Adept Enterprise Manager and Adept Fleet Manager bundles are hardware and software
solutions that helps you to manage a fleet of Adept mobile robots. With either application, the
Adept SmartFleet EX™ appliance can communicate with all of the robots in the fleet and per-
form a variety of fleet-oriented tasks.
Adept Fleet Manager
The Adept Fleet Manager allows you to manage map and configuration updates in a central
location. These are then pushed out to each robot in the fleet. It also allows the mobile robots to
work within close range of each other, without traffic issues or collisions.
The Adept Fleet Manager bundle consists of an Adept SmartFleet EX appliance, the Adept
Fleet Manager software, and the Fleet Manager license.
Adept Enterprise Manager
The Adept Enterprise Manager does all of what the Adept Fleet Manager does, with additional
queueing capabilities. This includes job input, queueing, and dispatch software for both single-
robot or multi-robot systems.
The Adept Enterprise Manager bundle consists of an Adept SmartFleet EX appliance, the
Adept Enterprise Manager software, and the Enterprise Manager license.
Adept SmartFleet EX
The Adept SmartFleet EX is an appliance with the processor needed for running either the
Adept Enterprise Manager or Adept Fleet Manager software, and the connectivity for com-
municating with a fleet of mobile robots.
For day-to-day operation, this only involves the use of the appliance's Ethernet port. For less
common upgrades, connectors are provided for attaching a mouse, keyboard, and monitor.