Rowland is a member of the Voyager team with the role of Voyager Evangelist. The information in this blog post is based on pre-beta software installed in early 2022. The final release will almost certainly have changes based on beta testing feedback.
Overview
RoboTarget is Voyager Advanced’s automated scheduler. In real time, it chooses an appropriate target to run from a database of targets you create, using constraints you add to control when a target can be imaged. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the RoboTarget Manager, which is the user interface you use to create entries for each target you would like to shoot.
RoboTarget Manager Startup and Organization
RoboTarget is Voyager Advanced’s automated scheduler. In real time, it chooses an appropriate target to run from a database of targets you create, using constraints you add to control when a target can be imaged. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the RoboTarget Manager, which is the user interface you use to create entries for each target you would like to shoot.
There are a couple of ways to bring up the RoboTarget Manager. You can click its icon in the very top bar of the window:
You can click RoboTarget from the Section tab, and then click the RoboTarget Manager button that appears in the RoboTarget section:
You could also add a shortcut to the VoyagerRoboTargetManager.exe program file in the Voyager program directory and run it from there.
Finally, you can run the RoboTarget Manager on a different PC than the one that runs Voyager to control your scope, connect to the remote PC and remotely manage the target database that resides there. RoboTarget Manager has a Site Manager built-in where you can define multiple local or remote sites, including their IP address, a shared secret (character string) used to authorize your connection, and more. We’ll examine this in more detail in a later blog post.
For now, we’ll just run RoboTarget Manager on the same machine as the Voyager instance that will run RoboTarget.
As installed, RoboTarget Manager defines one site called “Local,” which is the PC it is running on. Click the Connect button to connecto the local Voyager instance, which must be running. RoboTarget Manager connects to Voyager’s application server, which must be running.
Once connected, you’ll see a list of the profiles defined for that Voyager instance, with the active profile outlined in red:
Base Sequences
Under the profile are one or more “base sequences” associated with the targets you have defined for the profile, and the disk drive icon, in this case labeled RGB Test, which expands to a set of one or more targets.
Base sequences define the actions to take when running a target, except for the overrides that are contained in the target definition. Think of the base sequence as the starting point for how you want to shoot a target. Every target definition includes a base sequence. A set of targets can all use the same base sequence, or you can define multiple base sequences and attach them to the targets in any way you like.
Only sequences found in the top-level ConfigSequence folder (under your Voyager folder) are available for use as base sequences.
For safety, only sequences associated with the current profile can be used as base sequences.
Add a base sequence by right-clicking the profile icon and selecting Add Base Sequence from the menu:
A drop-down list appears in the right panel listing all your Voyager sequences. Choose one to be the base sequence, and optionally designate it as the default base sequence. Check the box to enable it if you want to use it.
