Ascento Robot Integration Guide

Introduction

The Ascento robot is an autonomous security robot that carries five cameras. This guide explains how it is connected to GCXONE, and what you can see and do once it is running.

Once the robot is connected, GCXONE gives you:

• Live video from the robot's five cameras — front, back, left, right, and a thermal camera.
• Detection alarms raised while the robot patrols, such as people and vehicles. Each one arrives with images and a box drawn around what was detected.
• Technical alerts about the robot itself — low battery, charging state, leaving its safe zone, spotlight and hazard-light changes, and loss of communication.
• Light control — switch the robot's spotlight and hazard light on or off.

System Overview

GCXONE connects to the Ascento cloud to receive:

• Live video streaming
• Alarms and events
• Changes in the robot's status

System Architecture

Communication Flows

Configuration Overview

Pre-Integration Requirements

Ascento Robot Configuration

Step 1: Login to GCXONE Platform

• Open the GCXONE URL in a browser.
• Sign in using your administrator or integrator credentials.
• After you sign in, GCXONE loads the environment for your tenant.

Step 2: Select Your Organization

If your tenant has more than one organization, GCXONE asks you which one you want to manage.

• More than one organization — choose the one you want from the selector screen.
• Only one organization — GCXONE opens it for you and goes straight to the dashboard.

Step 3: Navigate to the Configuration App

• From the left-hand Apps panel, locate the Configuration icon.
• Click Configuration to open the configuration workspace.
• The configuration screen opens. This is where you manage customers, sites, and devices.

Step 4: Understanding the Configuration Hierarchy

GCXONE organises everything in a fixed order: Customer → Site → Device → Cameras/Sensors.

How this hierarchy works

• Customer — the company or client at the top. A customer holds one or more sites.
• Site — a location, such as an office, warehouse, or retail store. Every device at that location belongs to its site.
• Device — the hardware itself, such as an Ascento robot. Its cameras and sensors sit underneath it.

Keeping this order means alarms are routed to the right place, each customer's data stays separate, and reporting works site by site.

Step 5: Select or Create a Customer/Site

In the Configuration app:

• Choose an existing customer and site from the list, or click Add New to create them.

Step 6: Add Devices to the Site

With the site selected:

• Open the Devices tab under the site.
• Click Add New.
• Choose the type of device you want to add:
• Ascento
• The device configuration wizard opens.

Add the following configuration details for the Ascento integration:

1. Robo ID – Unique identifier of the Ascento robot.
2. User Name – Ascento Cloud username used to authenticate with the Ascento REST API. One set of cloud credentials applies to all devices in the same organization.
3. Password – Ascento Cloud password used to authenticate with the Ascento REST API.
4. Alarm URL – Pre-filled automatically to receive alarm and event notifications (no input required).
5. Organization ID – Read-only. Populated automatically, and used to fetch detailed event information.
6. Organization Name – Read-only. Populated automatically, and used to establish the MQTT connection and event flow.
7. SafeZone In Meters – Optional. Safe-zone perimeter distance around the robot.
8. Timezone – Required. The timezone the robot operates in, for example Europe/Zurich.

Certificate Configuration

The certificate fields will be displayed automatically after the device discovery. If any updates are required, the certificates can be edited and uploaded.

1. CA Root Certificate – Used to verify the MQTT broker's certificate.
2. Certificate – Used for client authentication during the MQTT connection.
3. Private Key Certificate – Used together with the Certificate to establish a secure MQTT connection.

These certificate files are needed once per organization. If you have already imported these certificates for another Robot device in the same organization, they will be reused — you don't need to import them again.

The dialog also contains three further sections: Device Configuration (Site Pulse Configuration); Advanced Settings (Event Polling, Configure Heatmap Mask, Periodic Health Check, and Event Retention Time, which defaults to 30 days); and Location (Latitude, Longitude, Plus Code, and What 3 Words).

You can find the Robo ID in the Ascento Web Portal. Refer the below screenshot.

Once entered, click Discover. After a successful discovery the dialog shows Close, Rediscover, and Save.

Step 7: Camera List Discovery

GCXONE retrieves the robot's:

• Camera list
• Control ports (such as hazard lights, spot lights, etc..)

Every Ascento robot is discovered with the same five fixed cameras: front, back, left, right, and a thermal camera (listed as thermal -Thermal). They appear in the Connected Cameras (5/5 enabled) panel of the device dialog, and on the device Overview as Active Sensors 5/5.

Click Save to finish adding the device. The device overview opens.

To check that video is working, open any camera from the device list. The live stream should play without interruption.

You can also watch several cameras at once. In the Video Viewer, drag the device into the play area and all its cameras start streaming together.

Events and Rules Configuration

The robot sends two kinds of alarm.

\1. Status Alarms

Status alarms tell you about the condition of the robot itself, and GCXONE handles them as technical alarms. You see them:

• On the device dashboard
• In Talos, the alarm-handling application

The robot reports the following values, and the alarm rules you configure turn them into technical alarms:

Battery

• State of Charge (SoC)
• Charging Status

Pose

• Heading
• Latitude
• Longitude

\2. Finding Alarms

Finding alarms are what the robot detects around it, such as a person or a vehicle. GCXONE handles them as motion events, and you see them:

• In Video Activity Search (VAS), where you can search past events
• In Talos, the alarm-handling application

Each Finding event opens in the standard event view, which shows:

• Four panes — Pre Alarm, Alarm, Post Alarm, and a live Preview.
• Bounding boxes highlighting the detected object.
• A classification badge such as REAL ALARM.
• Press A and D to move between events.

The Device Events Fields table on the device page lists every event received, with the columns Time, Event Type, Genesis Analysis, Zone, Camera Name, Index, Alarm/Restore, Device Type, Camera Type, Images Duration, Analytics Duration, Overall Duration, and Images in Event. Events appear with their raw codes — motion events such as analytics.people.* and vehicle.alert, and technical events such as robot.battery.soc.warning. The Genesis Analysis column classifies each event as REAL, REDUNDANT, or TECH, and the Alarm/Restore column shows whether the event raised or restored the condition.

Custom Alarm Rule Configuration

Status alarms are not raised on their own. You decide when the robot should alert you — for example, below what battery level, or how far it may travel from its safe zone — by setting Custom Alarm Rules on the device:

Device Edit Dialog → Properties → Custom Alarm Rules

GCXONE checks the values the robot reports against these rules and raises a technical alarm whenever one is met.

Click View/Edit JSON, paste the Ascento alarm rules, save the dialog, then save the device.

{
  "Ascento": {
    "battery": {
      "stateOfCharge": {
        "active": false,
        "low": 20,
        "eventCode": "robot.battery.soc.warning",
        "groupCode": "robot.battery.soc.alert"
      },
      "charging": {
        "active": false,
        "expectedCharging": false,
        "eventCode": "robot.battery.charging.statechange",
        "groupCode": "robot.battery.charging.alert"
      }
    },
    "location": {
      "geoFence": {
        "active": false,
        "radiusMeters": 500,
        "eventCode": "robot.geofence.breach",
        "groupCode": "robot.location.geofence.alert"
      }
    },
    "spotLightsEnabled": {
      "active": false,
      "alertOn": true,
      "eventCode": "robot.spotlight.statechange",
      "groupCode": "robot.spotlight.alert"
    },
    "hazardLightsEnabled": {
      "active": false,
      "alertOn": true,
      "eventCode": "robot.hazardlight.statechange",
      "groupCode": "robot.hazardlight.alert"
    },
    "communication": {
      "offline": {
        "active": false,
        "timeoutSeconds": 30,
        "eventCode": "robot.communication.lost",
        "groupCode": "robot.communication.alert"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alarm Processing Overview

When an alarm arrives from the robot, three GCXONE applications work together so the operator sees the whole picture at once: the alarm details, the video, and the location on the map.

\1. Talos — handling the alarm

Talos is the operator's main alarm console.

• Every alarm is listed with its device, site, customer, time, trigger type, and severity.
• Open an alarm to investigate it, acknowledge it, add notes, assign it, or escalate it.

The alarm is managed from here from the moment it arrives until it is closed.

\2. Video Viewer — checking what happened

As soon as you open an alarm in Talos, the Video Viewer switches to that alarm and shows:

• Pre-alarm image
• Current-alarm image
• Post-alarm image.

You also have the full set of video tools:

• Live Video
• Device Control
• Multi-camera layouts

This lets you confirm what happened straight away.

\3. Map — seeing where it happened, and responding

The Map shows every device on an interactive site map. When you select an alarm in Talos, the map centres on where it came from.

From the map you can act on the robot directly and switch its lights on or off:

• Spot Lights
• Hazard Lights

So you can respond from the same screen you are already looking at.

Multi-Monitor Operator Workflow

Control rooms usually run three or more monitors, and GCXONE is built for that:

• Monitor 1 — Talos

• Monitor 2 — Video Viewer

• Monitor 3 — Map

When you open an alarm on the first monitor, the other two follow it automatically:

• The Video Viewer switches to that alarm's cameras.
• The Map highlights the site and the device the alarm came from.

You get the alarm, the video, and the location side by side without opening anything yourself, so you can decide and respond faster.

Integrations Features Overview

GCXONE connects to the Ascento cloud using its REST APIs for robot data and control, RTSP for live video, and a subscription for alarms and events. Everything the robot sends is then managed in GCXONE alongside your other devices.