Debugging a Critical Timing Issue: How Adding LiDAR Streaming Froze My Autonomous Robot
By
ecto
An everything bagel for the brain. Substantive, layered, well-seasoned.
Summary
A developer shares a debugging nightmare where adding LiDAR streaming over WebRTC to their autonomous sidewalk robot causes the critical 100Hz control loop to freeze exactly 16 seconds after a client connects. The robot doesn't crash or throw errors but simply stops responding, leaving the developer frustrated after 8 hours of debugging. The article details the technical investigation into this timing-sensitive issue that threatens the robot's core functionality.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledIt's 2am. My robot is frozen. Not crashed, not erroring, just... vibing. Sitting there. Motors off. Completely checked out.
The control loop runs at 100Hz — every 10ms we read sensors, do math, send motor commands. It's the heartbeat. The one thing that absolutely cannot stop.
Now, ~16 seconds after a client connects, the loop just stops. Doesn't crash. Doesn't throw.
I've been debugging for 8 hours and I'm about to mass delete my entire codebase and become a farmer.
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