Detecting Automation and Robotics Faults Before They Disrupt Warehouse Operations

In highly automated warehouse environments, robotic and automation faults often develop gradually until a line fault, robot stop, or safety event forces immediate investigation.

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the importance

Why This Failure Mode Gets Expensive Fast

Automation and robotics faults are a leading cause of unplanned downtime in high-throughput warehouse operations, and rarely stay isolated to a single component. When early warning signs are missed, teams are often left responding to:

Unexpected robot stops or line shutdowns
Repeated fault resets that do not resolve the root issue
Missed picks, misfeeds, or dropped product
Emergency troubleshooting during live production
Increased safety exposure around moving equipment

In many cases, the initial problem is small. A motor running hotter than normal, a drive under uneven load, or a robot joint drifting out of tolerance. Once faults start cascading across a cell or line, recovery becomes slow and disruptive.

What begins as a minor deviation often turns into extended downtime and lost throughput.

early warnings

Failure Reality

Automation and robotics faults rarely appear without warning. Early signs of automation and robotics faults are often inconsistent and easy to dismiss during normal operation.

They develop as motors heat up, drives drift, bearings wear, cables fatigue, or sensors fall out of alignment.

When robotic arms, automated sorters, shuttle systems, palletizers, ASRS cranes, or conveyor-driven cells begin to degrade, teams often notice:

Intermittent robot faults or unexpected stops
Axis following errors or position drift
Slower cycle times or inconsistent motion
Sensors triggering unexpectedly or failing to trigger
One robot or station behaving differently than identical units

By the time a robot faults out or a safety circuit trips, mechanical or electrical stress has often been building for weeks.

Internally, teams describe this as:

“It faults randomly.”
“It runs fine, then just stops.”
“The program hasn’t changed.”
“That robot is always the one acting up.”

OUR SOLUTION

Where MultisensorAI Helps

MultisensorAI delivers continuous condition insight through MSAI Connect, helping maintenance and reliability teams detect early mechanical and electrical degradation in robotic arms, sorters, drives, and control cabinets—before faults, stops, or safety events occur.

In high-speed warehouse environments, robot controllers and safety circuits are designed to stop motion when limits are exceeded—not to surface gradual heat buildup, load imbalance, or component drift.

MSAI Connect works alongside existing robot controllers, PLCs, and maintenance systems, adding a condition-based intelligence layer that highlights abnormal temperature and performance trends without changing control logic or programs.

how it works

How Early Threat Detection Works

Before an automation or robotics fault forces a stop, subtle but measurable changes occur. These changes often show up well before a robot controller throws a fault code, and in many cases, can be seen days or weeks before repeated robot faults begin.

Common early indicators include:

Localized heat buildup in motors, drives, or robot joints
Uneven temperature across similar robots or conveyor zones
Gradual increases in vibration or friction
Electrical stress caused by load variation or duty cycle changes

Robot alarms and safety interlocks are designed to stop motion when limits are exceeded. They are not designed to show gradual degradation.

Early detection depends on knowing which motors, joints, or drives are running hotter than expected, how fast conditions are changing, and how one robot compares to another performing the same task.

Maintenance Equipment Optimization

Extending Component Life Without Over-Maintaining

Robotic and automation components do not wear evenly or fail on a fixed schedule.

Without early condition insight, maintenance teams are often forced to replace motors, drives, or gearboxes conservatively because the true condition is unclear. Over-maintaining robots and automation equipment is common when fault data is the only input available.

Common challenges include:

This is especially common in:

Robot motors replaced early due to nuisance faults

Robotic pick-and-place cells
Gearboxes serviced uniformly despite uneven duty cycles

Automated sortation and palletizing systems
Preventive maintenance applied broadly across entire lines

Conveyor-driven merge and divert zones

Extending component life requires knowing which motors, joints, or drives are actually degrading and how quickly conditions are changing, rather than relying only on run hours, fault counts, or calendar-based maintenance.

Labour Effectiveness

Reducing Reactive Work Caused by
Automation and Robotics Faults

When early signs of automation degradation are missed, maintenance work becomes reactive.

Reactive robot troubleshooting is one of the largest drains on skilled maintenance labour in automated warehouses.

Teams frequently experience:

Emergency calls after robots fault out mid-shift
Repeated resets that do not address the underlying issue
Skilled technicians pulled from planned work to chase intermittent faults

This reactive cycle consumes labour without improving reliability.

Reducing reactive work depends on catching degradation early, before faults repeat. This allows teams to plan access, stage parts, and correct the issue during scheduled windows instead of reacting to stops during production.

Health & Safety

Managing Heat and Friction
Before They Create Exposure

Heat and friction are early indicators of stress in automated and robotic equipment. Rising motor or joint temperature is often the first measurable sign that a robot is under mechanical or electrical stress.

As motors wear, bearings degrade, or drives operate under uneven load, localized temperature increases often appear long before a robot stops or faults.

If left unaddressed, these conditions can lead to:

Motor or drive failure
Robot joint seizure or loss of position accuracy
Increased safety risk during manual recovery or repair

Managing heat and friction early helps reduce the likelihood of sudden stops and hazardous recovery scenarios, shifting work from urgent intervention to controlled maintenance.

Asset & Environment Examples

Seeing This Gap In Your Operations?

Why are automation and robotics faults hard to detect early? Because most robot controllers and automation alarms focus on fault limits and safety conditions, not on gradual mechanical or electrical degradation. Robots often appear to be running normally right up until they stop.

Common detection gaps include:

Robot faults that appear only after limits are exceeded
Limited visibility into motor and joint temperature
Periodic inspections that miss developing issues
Reliance on fault codes without condition context

Robots often appear to be running normally right up until they stop.

Why This Failure Is Commonly Missed

What happens if you miss it

If early warning signs go unnoticed, teams are left reacting to automation and robotics failures instead of preventing them.

Common outcomes include:

Repeated robot stops and lost throughput
Cascading faults across interconnected equipment
Emergency troubleshooting under production pressure
Increased safety exposure during manual recovery

In many cases, the issue starts at a single motor, joint, or drive. Once heat or friction accelerates, fault frequency increases and recovery becomes disruptive.

Missing early indicators turns automation maintenance into constant firefighting. And, missing early signs of automation and robotics faults turns small issues into repeated production stops.

faq

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes automation and robotics faults?

Automation and robotics faults are commonly caused by motor wear, bearing degradation, cable fatigue, drive stress, sensor misalignment, and uneven loading over time.

How early can robotics faults be detected?

Early indicators often appear weeks before a robot faults or stops, depending on duty cycle, load, and operating conditions.

Why don’t robot controllers catch this earlier?

Robot controllers are designed to stop motion when limits are exceeded, not to highlight gradual degradation developing below fault thresholds.

Is heat an early indicator of robotics problems?

Yes. Rising motor or joint temperature is often one of the first signs that a robot or automated mechanism is under stress.

Are fault codes enough to manage robot reliability?

No. Fault codes indicate when a limit has been exceeded but do not show how conditions are trending before failure.