Automation

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Automation is a game mechanic that enables players to automate parts of their bases to run without needing to interact with control panels, move resources, or turn power on or off. It could help with automating the production of any resource, item, or machine. Common examples of factories made with this automation are  Nanocarbon Alloy and  Hydrazine factories, though they can achieve almost anything with clever usage.

## Automation Items

These are parts in the game that can either interact with other objects, the player, vehicles, rail systems, or bases to create a dynamic system.

### Auto Arm

The  Auto Arm is a Tier 2 item that allows the player to move Tier 1 items to and from storages and modules and can also place items into the player's Backpack. The Auto Arm can also be applied with a filter when a suitable item is placed on its middle slot. (Except for an empty  Small Canister due to it being registered as an empty slot due to an oversight) Auto Arms, when powered, will attempt to pick up an available small item within its green range and dump it into a blue range, prioritizing "Required" holograms first. It can be used for pulling items from Rovers to fill up dedicated storage areas of a player's base or moving items onto platforms to be used by connected Printers. Caution should be expressed when using powered Auto Arms, as they will be more than happy to swipe an item you are currently moving around; a worst case scenario could be it picking up a  Dynamite or other explosive resource and throwing it into a Shredder, causing an explosion.

### Auto Extractor

The  Auto Extractor can be used to give players a greater amount of resources from a single deposit. It gives up to 15 times the number of resources that the Terrain Tool would produce from the same deposit, but at a much slower speed; however, you can speed up the process by placing more Auto Extractors. The Auto Extractor will not modify the terrain in any way, simply pulling resources from the deposit itself and making it less sparse. Due to its 8U/s power draw, it is very easy to set up a mining outpost with a  Medium T-Platform and a pair of  RTGs. It is possible to run the Auto Extractor on very low power consumption in a manual way, because once it is placed on a deposit, it will make one initial strike into the ground and pull up some resources. If it is picked up just after resource extraction, it can be placed back down again, allowing one to manually mine with it through multiple initial strikes.

### Repeaters

Repeaters are used to send a signal to a location or another object, triggering it, or waiting a specified amount of time or hits.

* The  Button Repeater is used to activate one or more items a single time. The button can be pressed manually by the player, or triggered by signals from Sensors or other Button Repeaters can trigger it as well, allowing more advanced automation of creating items. It is commonly used for requesting something to be done in an automated facility, or to simply act as a signal extender.
* The  Count Repeater is used to activate one or more items when activated a specified number of times. This object is often used in clock systems in combination with the Delay Repeater, but also is used to count the number of items that have passed through the setup, for example an  Auto Arm being turned off once it has sufficiently supplied a  Trade Platform with scrap.
* The  Delay Repeater is used to activate one or more items when activated after a specified delay. Like the Count Repeater, it is often used in clock systems, though it has several other uses, like making music with Horns at a specific beat rate, or setting up a fascinating lighting arrangement upon entering a facility.
* The  Proximity Repeater is used to activate interactive items in its green activation range. Its usage shines when you need to activate multiple objects at once; for example, farming bytes off of many plants is only realistically feasible with this object, proving it invaluable to gathering vast amounts of research. Be careful when combining multiple Proximity Repeaters, as they can trigger each other, causing an infinite loop of activation every game tic. This situation should be avoided on networked games due to the sheer packet volume.

### Storage, Battery and Power Sensors

Sensors allow players to have more control over when items and modules will run or activate. Sensors send signals to connected items when certain conditions are met. To configure what the sensor does, connect it to one or more valid objects and press the use key on it.

* The  Storage Sensor connects to various storages in the game; if it has an inventory of any kind, it can usually be attached to with a storage sensor. It has three settings, Full or Empty, Empty or not Empty, Full or Not Full. When the condition is met when a resource leaves or enters a storage, it will send a signal to its target.
* The  Battery Sensor connects to storages that contain Batteries. It has three settings, Charged or Not Charged, Empty or Not Charged, Charged or Empty. It will send a signal when the combined power of all the batteries change state between Charged, Not Charged, or Empty.
* The  Power Sensor is unique in that it doesn't require being attached to an object. It is used to detect when the power rate flowing through it changes. It has a power socket on each end designed to detect the energy flowing through it, and can also detect directional flow provided by  Extenders or the  Power Switch. It has three modes, Power Gained, Power Lost, or Power Gained or Lost. When the power flowing through it increases or decreases, it will send a signal to the target depending on its configuration.

### Motion Sensors

The various area-based sensors, such as the  XL Sensor Canopy or the  Large Sensor Ring can be used to bring life to automation. When placed, they will have a blue holographic plane which represents their sensor zone. When an object, any of the Rovers or an  Astroneer pass through the sensor zone, it will send a signal to its targeted objects. This can be exceptionally useful for players who want to set up some sort of entrance music, or activate the lights when someone is inside, or to simply trigger the base to grab resources from a rover and sort it.

## Non Automation Objects

While these objects are not automation items themselves, they are commonly used in combination with automation setups and their interactions are herein defined.

### Production Machines

Production machines like the  Chemistry Lab and the  Smelting Furnace are also used in automation often as they are used to create high-grade resources and other objects automatically. They are the forefront of engineering a productive and lively base as well as keeping a stockpile of resources ready and crafted for printing.

### Power Switch

The  Power Switch is used to toggle the flow of power through a one-way cable, this can be useful if players wish to control which parts of their base receive power. It can be used to turn off machines that don't need power when their storages are full, or to turn off  Auto Extractors when power is running low.

### Rails

Rail Posts/Tall Rail Posts, Rail Cars/Rail Engines and Rail Stations can send and receive signals, and Rail Junctions can only receive them. The rail system is a powerful tool in automation, as the rails transfer power and oxygen, which make them especially handy in setting up an  Auto Extractor. Generally, rail systems are great for expanding automation to a large reach of the planet or to link factories together. A common usage for the rail system is to gather  Astronium without the arduous task of sliding down and then climbing out of the core to swap canisters.

* The Posts send a signal out when the first car in a train passes it, and upon receiving a signal, it will call the nearest car to it.
* Signals sent to Rail Cars and Rail Engines will toggle between it stopping and starting.
* The Rail Station also sends out a signal when the first car of the train arrives into the station on either side. Signals sent into the signal inputs will stop a car on its way, and conversely, a signal applied to anywhere else on the rail station will call the nearest car to the station.
* Inputs sent into a Rail Junction will change its connecting sides, depending on if it's sent into one of three input slots or just send somewhere onto the object.

### Resource Canisters

The Medium and Large Resource Canisters can be very useful when paired with the Auto Extractor, allowing players to leave the extractor running for a long time and coming back to a full canister. They can also be used to stockpile a large supply of a resource that cannot be acquired on the planet that a factory is built on, such as a  Helium storage to manufacture  Nanocarbon Alloy.

* The  Medium Gas Canister allows storage up to 160 units of a single atmospheric resource.
* The  Medium Fluid & Soil Canister allows storage of up to 24 Small Canisters of Hydrazine or Soil.
* The  Medium Resource Canister allows storage up to 32 nuggets of a single resource.
* The  Large Resource Canister allows storage up to 400 nuggets of a single resource.

In addition to storing items, they can also be used in combination with Horns to create music, based on the amount and type of resource inside the canister. The page for Horns has documentation on the available soundscape.

### Storages

* The  Large Active Storage is a convertible storage unit with slots that can be activated via repeaters. This can be used for lightboard setups, as a state indicator, or as a means to store and organize a signal machine.

## Getting Started with Automation

Automation in Astroneer can feel a bit overwhelming at first, but taking small steps helps build into larger things.

### Quick Tips and Quality of Life Improvements

* You can use the  Proximity Repeater to activate multiple plants or research samples if you want to acquire bytes in a new way. You can combine it with a  Delay Repeater to make the task of harvesting research samples hands-free and even trigger multiple repeaters at the same time.
* You can use a  Storage Sensor to create an indicator light on when you have run out of a certain resource, or a  Battery Sensor to turn off power-hungry machinery when your power is low so low-power objects like Printers can be given higher priority, or vice-versa if you want to help an  Atmospheric Condenser finish gathering a gas.
* You can use Motion Sensors to turn on the lights when you enter your base or to play a small jingle with Horns.
* The  Auto Arm is an invaluable tool, as it is the main tool for transferring items and resources between inventories. You can use them to keep a certain product in stock, like  Tethers, or refined resources like  Glass and  Plastic.
* Adversely, the  Auto Arm will constantly use 1U/s power while it is turned on. You can use a  Storage Sensor to detect if the target storage is full, and if so, turn off the Auto Arm to save on power.
* If you intend to do a lot of automation, it might be wise to set up printers to produce a stockpile of the automation items on platforms for you to help streamline the process.

### Guides and Common Setups

* Guide:Nanocarbon Alloy Automation illustrates how players could utilize Auto Arms to automate the crafting of  Nanocarbon Alloy.
* The  Soil Centrifuge is often used in combination with the Shredders to create large supplies of  Scrap, since it can be traded for any of the solid resources in the game with the  Trade Platform. The most valuable hand-fed resource directly obtainable from it is  Ceramic at 1.5 scrap per soil by crafting it via backpack hand into  Small Wind Turbine. If you want a fully automated setup with solely the Soil Centrifuge, you will want to instead use  Resin to craft  Small Canister with a  Small Printer. There is one additional hybrid setup that involves extracting  Aluminum from the environment and combining it with the centrifuged Resin to create  Rail Post Bundle which is a small item that shreds for 1.25 Scrap and can also be picked up by an  Auto Arm.