Care Robot Records: Returning and Docked State Labels

A cleaning robot may appear beside other service devices in an eldercare dashboard. A short activity label can then acquire more meaning in a handover summary than its source supports. Returning and docked are a useful example. One describes a return toward the dock; the other places the vacuum in its dock. This article reads Home Assistant documentation to help a reviewer preserve that distinction. It does not operate a device, assess a person's condition or report a cleaning trial.

Start with the entity that owns the activity

The official vacuum entity documentation concerns robot vacuum cleaners, including robot mops and combined vacuum-and-mop devices. Its activity vocabulary belongs to that entity. A reviewer should therefore name the device record under discussion before interpreting a label copied into a wider care-service dashboard. A general heading such as room ready may describe a different question from the activity that the vacuum integration reports.

The document identifies activity as what the vacuum is doing and lists its possible states. That provides a vocabulary for an integration. It does not establish that an unknown installed integration maps every manufacturer message correctly. For a real handover, retain the integration identity and the version of the delivered dashboard beside the record. A public definition helps formulate a question; a particular installation still needs its own supporting information.

Read returning as a journey toward the dock

The state table describes RETURNING as being on the way back to the dock. A summary should preserve that ongoing activity. Replacing it with arrived loses a distinction that the source explicitly supplies. A person reviewing an existing export can retain the original label and explain what the documented vocabulary means, while making clear whether any later observation is actually available.

Consider a fictional shift note that copies returning from a cleaning-device dashboard and rewrites it as docked successfully. The note would turn a reported activity into a completed arrival without supporting material. The useful correction is to restore the original label and ask what record supports arrival. This invented example contains no real residents, facility or device movement. It illustrates an editorial change rather than a finding that a robot failed.

Keep docked within its stated meaning

The same documentation describes DOCKED as the vacuum being in its dock and says that this usually also means charging. The word usually should remain part of any explanation drawn from that sentence. It does not justify writing a measured charging result for an unknown device. If a procurement or handover question specifically concerns charging, ask for the corresponding information from the responsible supplier rather than extending an activity label.

Docked also does not, by itself, state that every planned area has been cleaned or that a room is ready for a particular person. Those claims have different subjects and may require different records. Keeping the activity field narrow makes a dashboard easier to discuss: the writer can explain what the field says without claiming to have established the condition of the entire service environment.

Use the source vocabulary without turning code into a test

The official vacuum constants source separately defines RETURNING and DOCKED within VacuumActivity, alongside other activities. This supports preserving separate labels in an explanatory glossary. It is development-branch source, not evidence that the same revision is installed on a particular system. The current documentation and source were read on November 5, 2026; retain that access context when preparing a project note.

The source also contains feature flags and service names. A reviewer should avoid confusing the existence of a return-home capability with evidence that a return has completed. The article gives no instructions for invoking that capability. Its concern is the interpretation of already available records. A statement about an offered feature, a reported activity and a later observation can all be relevant while remaining separate pieces of information.

Write a handover question that another reader can answer

A useful question identifies the vacuum record, quotes or preserves the activity label and asks how the delivered dashboard maps it into its summary. If the summary says docked while the retained record says returning, request an explanation of the mapping and the additional observation, if any. This is more precise than asking whether the whole system works, because the supplier can respond to the specific interpretation under review.

Keep the closing statement equally bounded. It might say that the vocabulary has been clarified or that the summary still lacks evidence for a completed arrival. It should not promise a care outcome, cleanliness result or safe unattended use. The two illustrations are original conceptual reading aids, without a product likeness or measured data. The care-service robot reading collection and article directory provide related material. A clear Returning note leaves both the device activity and the unanswered project question visible.