Troubleshooting

Start with the symptom the operator can observe. Change one part of the system at a time, then repeat the same check.

Stack does not start

On the robot computer:

1. sentinel status — shows daemon, stack, container, and config state in one place; problems appear in an errors: section at the end.
2. sentinel doctor — verifies Docker, GPU runtime, and daemon reachability.
3. sentinel config status — confirms the stack has a configuration to run.
4. sentinel logs -f — runtime container logs; journalctl -u sentineld -f for the daemon itself.

If sentinel status shows the daemon down, sudo systemctl restart sentineld. If it shows the device is not enrolled — or enrollment is rejected by the platform — run sentinel enroll with the robot's license key from the dashboard.

Robot does not appear

• Confirm the Sentinel runtime is running on the robot computer.
• Confirm the computer can reach the internet.
• Confirm the robot is registered to the same organization as the operator.
• Check that system time is synchronized.

Robot will not become ready

• Confirm sensor_msgs/JointState starts before Sentinel and publishes continuously at 100 Hz or faster.
• Check for gaps approaching 500 ms. A stale stream triggers an E-stop.
• Check that joint names match the URDF.
• Check that positions use radians.
• Confirm the robot description is available before the control pipeline starts.
• Confirm the ROS 2 domain and QoS settings match the integration.

Commands do not move the robot

• Confirm the robot is ready and teleoperation is active.
• Echo the command topic and verify messages arrive.
• Check the command message type and joint order.
• Confirm the robot-side controller accepts the same command with a small manual test.
• Check the hardware emergency stop and controller faults.

Camera is missing

• Run ros2 topic hz <camera-topic>.
• Confirm the configured image transport matches the publisher: raw, compressed, or compressedDepth.
• Check image encoding, reliability, and queue depth.
• Check that the configured topic name and camera name are correct.
• Confirm the camera topic is in the expected DDS domain. Cross-domain camera input requires the dedicated compressed-camera bridge.
• Test one camera at a time before enabling multiple views.

Video or control is delayed

• Use a wired connection for the robot computer when possible.
• Keep the headset on a low-congestion Wi-Fi network with strong signal.
• Reduce camera resolution, frame rate, or the number of active streams.
• Check whether delay affects video, commands, or both.
• Compare timestamps at capture, command generation, and robot receipt when diagnostic logs are available.

Connection drops

• Check for Wi-Fi roaming, power saving, and weak signal.
• Confirm the robot computer does not suspend network or GPU devices.
• Verify that state and camera publishers continue after the network reconnects.
• Put the robot into a safe state before restarting any component.

Collect information for support

Include:

• Sentinel runtime version
• Robot and compute model
• Session time and timezone
• ROS 2 distribution and ROS_DOMAIN_ID
• Relevant topic names, types, and rates
• The operator-visible symptom
• Whether the problem reproduces locally

For help, contact the team at contact@avearobotics.com.