Northwind Robotics Product Spec
Author: Engineering
Document ID: SPEC-WB9
Version: 1.8
Effective date: 20 February 2026
Last review: 10 February 2026
Classification: Internal - Engineering, Field, Support, Sales Engineering
Owner: Director of Robotics Platform
Approver: CTO
Related: POL-101, POL-207

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1. PRODUCT SUMMARY
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The WB-9 is Northwind's autonomous mobile robot for indoor warehouse
transport of totes and small pallets. It navigates using a combination of
LiDAR, wheel odometry, and facility maps supplied by the customer or built
during commissioning.

This specification is the engineering source of truth for payload, power,
speed, environment, and field constraints. Marketing one-pagers must not
contradict SPEC-WB9. If a customer asks for numbers, quote this document
or a released datasheet derived from it.

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2. KEY PERFORMANCE NUMBERS
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The WB-9 warehouse robot has a payload capacity of 25 kg.
Battery life is 8 hours on a single charge with a 90 minute recharge.
Maximum speed is 1.5 metres per second. Operating temperature
range is 0 to 40 degrees Celsius.

Payload notes. 25 kg is the rated continuous payload including the tote.
Do not exceed rated payload. Overload trips are logged and may void
support terms if repeated after warnings.

Battery notes. Eight-hour runtime assumes a mixed duty cycle at 20 C with
average load of 15 kg. Cold warehouses near 0 C can reduce runtime by up
to 20%. The docking charger requires a dedicated 230V (EU/UK) or 120V (US)
circuit as specified in the install guide.

Speed notes. 1.5 m/s is the software-limited maximum in open aisles with a
valid safety field. In narrow aisles or near humans, adaptive speed limits
apply automatically and cannot be overridden in customer mode.

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3. DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT, AND CLEARANCE
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Footprint: 700 mm length x 500 mm width x 350 mm height (robot base without
tote). Shipping weight (robot only): 48 kg. Turning radius: approximately
0.6 m in place with differential drive.

Aisle guidance. Minimum recommended aisle width for bidirectional traffic
with WB-9 is 2.0 m. Unidirectional guided paths may operate in 1.4 m aisles
after a site survey.

Floor quality. Requires sealed concrete or equivalent with slopes under
5 degrees. Grates, large expansion gaps, and standing water are out of
spec. Report floor issues during commissioning; do not "try it anyway".

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4. SENSORS, COMPUTE, AND CONNECTIVITY
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Primary LiDAR: 360-degree safety-rated unit with protective bumper zones.
Secondary: depth camera for tote alignment at pick stations. IMU and wheel
encoders support short dead-reckon segments.

Onboard compute runs the Northwind autonomy stack. Customers do not receive
root shell access. Diagnostic mode for field engineers uses badge + MFA
tokens per POL-207.

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6 dual-band and optional private 5G module. Robots must
remain reachable for OTA updates and emergency stop coordination. Offline
mission mode is limited to pre-downloaded routes and expires after 12 hours
without check-in.

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5. SAFETY AND HUMAN INTERACTION
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WB-9 includes safety-rated monitored stop and field intrusion detection.
E-stop buttons are on both sides of the chassis and on the optional
operator pendant.

Never ride the robot. Never disable safety fields to "save time" on a
demo. Safety bypass for maintenance exists only in a keyed maintenance
mode documented for certified technicians.

Incident response. If a WB-9 contacts a person or racking with force beyond
a bump alert, stop the fleet segment, photograph the scene when safe, and
open a Severity-1 ticket. People injuries follow site emergency procedures
first, then Northwind incident process.

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6. SOFTWARE VERSIONS AND OTA
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Production robots run signed software only. OTA updates require a staged
rollout: canary robots, then site, then region. Customers can postpone a
non-critical update for up to 14 days; safety-critical updates may be
forced with notice.

Do not flash unofficial builds. Doing so is a POL-207 violation and may
remove the robot from support.

Map updates. Facility map changes (new racks, blocked aisles) must be
validated in staging before production push. Stale maps are a leading cause
of wrong-path missions.

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7. MAINTENANCE AND FIELD SERVICE
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Daily: visual check of LiDAR windows, bumpers, and caster debris.
Weekly: inspect tote latches and charge contacts.
Quarterly: battery health report via diagnostics; replace packs below the
health threshold published in the service bulletin.

Consumables (bumper covers, charge pads) are ordered through Support with
the robot serial number. Serial format: WB9-YYYY-#####.

Field engineers travelling to sites claim travel under POL-114 and follow
hybrid/remote rules in POL-101 when scheduling office vs site days.

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8. CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT ASSUMPTIONS
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Customers provide: accurate maps or survey access, Wi-Fi coverage meeting
the RF checklist, marked keep-out zones, and trained on-site contacts.
Northwind does not operate robots in explosive atmospheres or outdoors.

Integration. WB-9 exposes a documented REST and MQTT interface for WMS
hand-off. Custom integrations need an Engineering change request.

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9. KNOWN LIMITATIONS (SUPPORT AND SALES MUST READ)
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WB-9 is not rated for outdoor yards, freezer rooms below 0 C, or payloads
above 25 kg. It is not a collaborative robot arm. It does not climb
conveyors. Claims that contradict this section are incorrect regardless of
what a slide deck says.

When answering "can it do X?" prefer SPEC-WB9 over memory. If the answer
is not here, say you need Engineering confirmation.

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10. DOCUMENT CONTROL
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Change requests: Engineering Change Board.
Public datasheet derivation must cite SPEC-WB9 version.
Document ID: SPEC-WB9

End of SPEC-WB9
