Mission Definitions

Define missions for your robot fleet and configure their execution

Status: Early Access — These features may not be available in all accounts.

Mission definitions allow you to configure reusable missions that robots in your fleet can execute. A mission is a sequence of steps—navigating to waypoints, executing actions, waiting for conditions, and updating mission data—that can be triggered on-demand or scheduled.

This configuration works together with mission tracking to monitor mission progress, whether missions are defined through InOrbit or executed by proprietary robot software and reported via APIs.

When to Use

• Automate repetitive tasks: Define delivery routes, cleaning paths, or patrol missions once and dispatch them repeatedly
• Orchestrate multi-step workflows: Combine navigation, actions, and waits into complex sequences
• Coordinate across robots: Use selectors to target specific robots or tags, and target other robots within mission steps

Key Concepts

Mission Steps

Missions consist of sequential steps, each performing one of these operations:

Step Type	Field	Description
Navigate to waypoint	waypoint	Go to coordinates or a named waypoint
Execute action	runAction	Trigger a robot action (defined in ActionDefinitions)
Update data	data	Set mission metadata (key-value pairs)
Wait for condition	waitUntil	Pause until an expression evaluates to true
Simple wait	timeoutSecs	Pause for a fixed number of seconds
Conditional branch	if	Execute different steps based on a condition

Every step can include:

• label: Human-readable description shown in mission widgets
• timeoutSecs: Maximum wait time before the step times out
• completeTask: Mark a named task as complete (for progress tracking)

Robot Selector

Use selector to restrict which robots can execute a mission:

Field	Type	Description
tagIds	string[]	Robot must have all these tags
robotIds	string[]	Robot must be in this list
robotId	string	Single robot ID
namePatterns	string[]	Robot name must match one of these regex patterns

All conditions are ANDed—a robot must satisfy all specified conditions.

Cross-Robot Targeting

Some steps (runAction, waitUntil, data) can target a different robot using the target field:

runAction:
  actionId: acknowledge-delivery
  target:
    robotId: control-station-01

Examples

Basic Delivery Mission

apiVersion: v0.1
kind: MissionDefinition
metadata:
  scope: account/<accountId>
  id: delivery-mission
spec:
  label: Delivery Mission
  steps:
    - label: "Setup mission data"
      data:
        itemType: "bottle"
        weight: 1.23
        containerNumber: 1
    - label: "Go to drop off location"
      waypoint:
        x: 1.10
        y: 20.98
        theta: 1.23
        frameId: "map"
      timeoutSecs: 300
    - label: "Wait 5 seconds"
      timeoutSecs: 5
    - label: "Open lid"
      runAction:
        actionId: script-open-lid
        arguments:
          ledColor: "#ff00ee"
          lidNumber:
            _data: "containerNumber"  # Reference mission data
    - label: "Wait for lid to be closed"
      waitUntil:
        expression: getValue("lid_open") == 0
        timeoutSecs: 60
      completeTask: "Pickup"
    - label: "Go to dock"
      waypoint: "dock"  # Named waypoint reference
      completeTask: "Delivery"
  selector:
    robot:
      tagIds: ["delivery_bot"]

Mission with Expression Evaluation

Evaluate expressions and optionally target specific robots:

apiVersion: v0.1
kind: MissionDefinition
metadata:
  scope: account/<accountId>
  id: data-collection-mission
spec:
  label: Data Collection Mission
  steps:
    - data:
        Greetings: helloWorld
        Mode DataSource for r2d2:
          expression: getValue("mode_ds")
          target:
            robotId: r2d2
        Mode Datasource for Wall-e:
          expression: getValue("mode_ds")

Schema Reference

Top-Level Fields

Field	Type	Required	Description
label	string	Yes	Human-readable mission name
steps	array	Yes	Sequence of mission steps
selector	object	No	Restricts which robots can execute

Step Fields

Field	Type	Description
label	string	Step description
timeoutSecs	number	Maximum wait time in seconds
completeTask	string	Task name to mark complete
waypoint	object|string	Navigation target (coordinates or named waypoint)
runAction	object	Action to execute
data	object	Mission metadata to set
waitUntil	object	Condition to wait for
if	object	Conditional branching with then and else

Waypoint Object

waypoint:
  x: 1.0          # X coordinate
  y: 2.0          # Y coordinate
  theta: 0.5      # Orientation (radians)
  frameId: "map"  # Optional frame ID (for multi-floor)

Or reference a named waypoint:

waypoint: "dock"  # References a SpatialAnnotation waypoint

Run Action Object

runAction:
  actionId: my-action        # Required: ActionDefinition ID
  arguments:                 # Optional: action arguments
    param1: "value"
    param2:
      _data: "missionField"  # Reference mission data
      _arguments: "dispatchArg"  # Reference dispatch arguments
  target:                    # Optional: run on different robot
    robotId: other-robot

Wait Until Object

waitUntil:
  expression: getValue("sensor") > 100  # Expression to evaluate
  timeoutSecs: 60                        # Optional timeout
  target:                                # Optional: evaluate on different robot
    robotId: other-robot

Selector Object

selector:
  robot:
    tagIds: ["picker-robots", "firmware-023"]
    robotIds: ["picker001", "picker002"]
    robotId: "picker001"
    namePatterns: ["picker.*"]

Related Documentation

• Mission Tracking — Monitor mission execution
• Action Definitions — Define robot actions
• Spatial Annotations — Define named waypoints
• Expressions Language — Syntax for conditions and calculations