Blog · Behind the scenes

What does an Aether operator actually approve during a day shift at a container terminal?

Behind the scenes on the Aether Ops screen at Port of Halvard Berth 3: the task queue, the exceptions the agents raise, the checks behind a proposed dispatch and where the human sits in every decision.

An Aether operator approves plans, not movements. During a shift the agents keep a task queue, assign Kinetic units, raise exceptions when something on the yard does not match the plan, and propose each dispatch with the checks it passed. The operator releases or overrides each one. Every dispatch has a human override, and the operator's decision is logged next to the agent's reasoning.

Sadia Morales · Chief Product Officer, Sirdar Systems · · 4 min read

Last updated

What is on the screen at the start of the shift?

The yard, the fleet and the queue.

Aether Ops at Port of Halvard Berth 3 runs Aether 2.3 and shows the day shift from 06:00 to 14:00. The yard view draws four rows of twelve bays, the quay crane lane, the reefer block and the gate and inspection zone. Six Kinetic M4 units and eight Halo H30 nodes sit on it at their real positions. Each unit shows its state, its current task and its battery.

At 08:14 on the morning this article describes, two units were moving, one was working, one was charging at 23% and two were paused.

What kinds of task do the agents plan?

Yard work that repeats all shift.

The queue held seven tasks: twist-lock removal at B-07 and B-10, seal inspections at A-03 and A-09, reefer plug-ins at D-11 and D-04 and a chassis pin check at C-05. Three were assigned and travelling or in progress; three were queued with no unit yet; one was paused. Each task carries an estimated time of arrival, and the agents re-plan the queue as units finish.

What is an exception, and who resolves it?

An exception is the agent saying "this does not match the plan, and I want a person to choose."

Three were open:

  • Unexpected obstacle. A pallet left in lane C-05 to C-06. Unit KM4-0223 was holding 4 m short. The options offered: re-plan around it, wait for the yard crew or cancel the task.
  • Safety hold from Sentinel. An open security investigation on the east segment had paused KM4-0217 and KM4-0221. The options: keep them paused or move them to the charge bay.
  • Reefer temperature alarm. Bay D-11 read 2.4 °C above set point with its plug-in task still open. The options: prioritise that task or notify the reefer technician.

The agent does not pick. It frames the choice, with the evidence, and the operator picks.

What does a proposed dispatch look like?

A recommendation with its checks attached.

Dispatch DSP-1140 proposed sending KM4-0211 to the queued seal inspection at A-09, because it would finish its current task in six minutes two bays away and keep the quay lane clear. Travel distance 62 m. Confidence 0.92. Three checks shown as passed: inside the Atlas world-model v41 safety envelope, no Sentinel hold on the unit, battery 82% against a 30% floor.

The operator reads the reason and the checks and releases it, or does not. That release is the human override on every dispatch that Sirdar describes in one sentence on the Aether datasheet. It is not a theoretical control. It is a button pressed many times a shift.

Why not let the agents dispatch on their own?

Because the yard is shared with people, and because the safety case says so.

Aether plans site operations, resolves exceptions and dispatches approved actions. The word approved is doing the work. The signed safety case for the Kinetic fleet cites Aether decision logs to show that a human override exists on every dispatch and is used. A fleet whose operator stopped reading proposals would still be safe in the engineering sense, but it would no longer match the argument its site signed.

How do Sentinel and Atlas show up in an Aether shift?

As facts the agents must respect.

Atlas supplies the envelope a dispatch must stay inside, by version. Sentinel supplies holds. When the investigation on the east segment paused two units at 08:13, Aether raised it as an exception rather than planning around it, and the proposed dispatch listed "no Sentinel hold" as a check it had passed. The three systems are not integrated by a message bus alone; they are integrated by the operator seeing all three on one screen.

What does the operator role need?

Judgement and site knowledge, more than robotics training.

An Aether operator seat is a per-seat subscription, and a site such as the Sirdar reference configuration carries twelve of them across its shifts. The people in those seats are usually yard supervisors who already knew which lane the pallet would be left in. Aether gives them the queue and the evidence. Sirdar's Managed Autonomy specialization certifies partners who run those seats on a customer's behalf.

Last updated 2026-09-30.

Questions and answers

Does an Aether agent move a robot without approval?
No. Agents plan and propose; a dispatch is released by an operator. Every dispatch has a human override, and the decision is logged with the agent's reasoning.
What checks does Aether show before a dispatch?
At Berth 3 a proposal listed three: inside the current Atlas safety envelope, no Sentinel hold on the unit, and battery above the 30% floor.
What happens when a robot meets an obstacle?
The unit holds and the agent raises an exception with options, for example re-plan, wait for the yard crew or cancel. The operator chooses.
Can a security event stop Aether dispatching a unit?
Yes. A Sentinel hold pauses the affected units and appears in Aether as an exception; no proposal passes its checks for a held unit.

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