ARC 2026.03.23.00 (Pro, Runtime And Free)

This release is packed with performance boosts, smarter behavior, cleaner visuals, and a big step forward for education features. Under the hood, a lot has been reworked to make ARC faster, more stable, and more enjoyable to use across the board.

Core Improvements

EZ-B Communication Evolution

• Moved the EZ-B listener server out of the Connection robot skill and into a centralized ARC service
• This new shared service is now used by multiple robot skills, including the Camera device
• Improves scalability and reduces duplicated logic across skills

Faster, Safer Communication

• Improved Serial and Network EZ-B communication drivers
• Fixed a potential race condition
• Overall performance improvements for more reliable connections

HTTP Server Stability

• Fixed encoding issues in both HttpServer and HttpServer Custom
• Resolved a thread state bug that could cause instability

Performance & Rendering

Theme Renderer Upgrade

• Fixed a small GDI object memory leak
• Improved font clarity
• Better layer rendering for a cleaner UI experience

Video Pipeline Optimization

• Replaced legacy memcpy usage with optimized memory copy buffers
• Improved performance for video streaming and processing

Camera System Enhancements

• Removed a potential race condition in the camera driver
• Improved overall performance
• New UCCameraCanvas:
  • Maintains a local copy of bitmap memory
  • Prevents UI from referencing freed memory
• Added safety checks to ensure memory is valid before UI updates
• Camera objects are now disposed when stopped to assist garbage collection

Tracking Engine Boost

Significant optimizations across all camera tracking types:

• Object
• Color
• Custom Color
• Haar
• Custom YCbCr
• Face
• Glyph
• Motion

Expect faster and more responsive tracking across the board.

Scripting & Engine Improvements

Smarter Script Synchronization

• Optimized cancellation tokens in the scripting engine
• Blocking scripts now synchronize correctly with caller scripts
• Wait control commands now properly respect cancellation tokens

Cleaner API

• Removed IsConnected from Audio classes in JavaScript and Python
• Use EZB.IsConnected() instead

Speech Recognition Fixes

• Fixed an issue in Bing Speech Recognition where audio headers may not be fully written before transcription
• Resolved a rare threading issue under specific conditions

User Interface Improvements

Window Behavior Fix

• Auto-position options window no longer restores window state when:
  • Dragging the title bar
  • Double-clicking the title bar
• Prevents accidental resizing when using touchscreen servo controls

Numeric Selector Control

• Added option to enable/disable right-click manual entry
• Ideal for touchscreen devices to prevent accidental keyboard popups

IntelliSense Improvements

• JavaScript and Python editors now suppress IntelliSense popups when typing inside quotes
• Less intrusive and more context-aware suggestions

Blockly Enhancements

Visual Improvements

• Toolbox category colors now match their corresponding blocks
• Updated block colors for better distinction and readability

Organization

• Movement servo blocks moved into a dedicated Servo category

New Capability

• Added UI.waitForUserInput():
  • Available in JavaScript, Python, and Blockly
  • Suspends script execution and prompts user for input
  • Includes timeout support
  • Found under the Text category in Blockly

Engine Updates

• Updated to Blockly v12.4.1
• Multiple fixes and stability improvements (ongoing testing continues)

Embedded Browser Enhancements

• Now supports loading local files for:
  • Sound effects
  • Graphics used in Blockly

Camera & Audio Fixes

SoundBoard Improvements

• Updated SoundBoard v4 and SoundBoard PC control commands:
  • Now support a Play parameter with a Filename parameter
  • Replaces the older Track_# approach
  • Track_# remains backward compatible
  • Cheat sheets updated to reflect new syntax
• Fixed string sanitization issues in SoundBoard

Audio Compatibility

• Removed UTF-8 and high ASCII characters from audio filenames in:
  • SoundBoard PC
  • SoundBoard EZ-B
• Prevents compatibility issues across systems

Connection Experience

• Connection robot skill now displays the EZ-B advertised name
• Supports devices like:
  • EZ-B v4
  • ESP32
  • IoTiny
• Makes it easier to identify robots by friendly name instead of IP address

Camera Device Enhancements

• Added new ControlCommand to adjust brightness for color tracking
• Provides finer control over tracking performance in varying lighting conditions

Education Features

Edu Activity Editor (First Release)

• Initial release of the Edu Activity Robot Skill
• Lays the foundation for creating structured educational content for ARC

Summary

This release focuses heavily on performance, stability, and usability:

• Faster camera and tracking systems
• More reliable communication and scripting
• Cleaner UI behavior and rendering
• Improved SoundBoard flexibility
• New control capabilities for camera tracking
• Major groundwork for education features

Everything feels tighter, smoother, and more predictable-exactly what you want when building and controlling robots.

More updates are coming as the education system and Blockly enhancements continue to evolve.