Automation Guide: Efficient Production Setups

Automation in ASTRONEER is the set of tools and logic that lets you move items, trigger modules, and run production chains with less manual work. It turns a base from a collection of separate machines into a connected system that can mine, sort, refine, and craft on its own.

Core automation building blocks

Automation revolves around a few categories of items: transport and sorting tools, repeaters and sensors for logic, resource storage for buffering, and production modules that can be chained together.

Auto Arm

The Auto Arm is the main item-moving tool for automation.

It is a Level 2 item.
It transfers small items from its input volume to its output volume.
It works well with Medium Resource Canisters and Large Resource Canisters.
It must be placed in a powered Level 2 slot to function.
When active, it continuously uses power even if it is not moving anything.
Its input area is marked in green and its output area is marked in blue.
It can be turned on and off manually or by a sensor or repeater.
The center slot is the filter slot; placing an item there makes the arm only pick up that item type.

The Auto Arm follows a simple cycle: it searches its input area, picks up a valid item, rotates about 180 degrees, looks for an empty slot in its output area, places the item, and repeats. If no output slot is available, it holds the item until space opens.

It can pick up most Level 1 items, including Anchors, Light Bars, small debris, Research Samples, Level 1 Storage, and some pedestal items. It can place items to and from almost all Level 1 slots, but it does not take items from the Astroneer Backpack, from other arms, or from another arm’s filter slot. It also does not place items directly into printer slots. It can place items into the Backpack and Terrain Tool. Some Level 1 items cannot be filtered.

Auto Extractor

The Auto Extractor is the core tool for automated mining.

It efficiently extracts Resources over time without removing terrain.
It uses power while active.
It is designed to keep running on a deposit for a long time when paired with storage.
It works especially well with Medium Resource Canisters and Large Resource Canisters for long mining runs.

Using Auto Extractors with resource storage lets you leave the extractor working and return later to a full canister.

Sensors and repeaters

Sensors and repeaters are the logic layer of automation. They let machines react to power state, storage state, movement, and timed events.

Storage, battery, and power sensors

These sensors send signals when a connected state changes.

Storage sensors can signal when connected storage is full, empty, filled, or not filled.
Battery sensors can signal when connected batteries gain or lose charge, are charged, are uncharged, are empty, or are not empty.
Power sensors can signal when power flow is gained, lost, or either gained or lost.

Motion sensors

Motion sensors activate targeted items when certain objects pass through their sensor area.

Recreation items can also trigger motion sensors, which makes them useful for simple movement-based circuits and playful base setups.

Repeaters

Repeaters provide simple control logic for activating one or more items.

The Button Repeater activates one or more items and can be pressed manually or triggered by sensors or other Button Repeaters.
The Count Repeater activates one or more items after it has been triggered a specified number of times.
The Delay Repeater activates one or more items after a specified delay.
The Switch is used to switch power flow through a single power line.
The Power Switch is useful for more complex circuits because it can act like a transistor, making logic gates easy to build.

Resource storage and buffering

Resource containers are not strictly automation devices, but they are central to automated production because they buffer output and feed machines continuously.

Medium and Large Resource Canisters

Medium Resource Canisters and Large Resource Canisters are especially useful with automation and extractors.

Medium Resource Canisters can hold up to 160 units of a single atmospheric resource.
Medium Resource Canisters can hold 32 nuggets of a single resource.
Large Resource Canisters can hold 400 nuggets of a single resource.

They let you run an extractor or production setup for a long time without constant supervision.

Storage and slot-based automation

Storage can also be used as a signal target for automation. Convertible storage units with slots can be activated through repeaters, which makes them useful for light boards and other custom automated displays or systems.

Automated production chains

Automation becomes most powerful when it feeds production modules in a loop.

Basic production chaining

A common early setup is to use a Button Repeater connected to a module to turn it on and off. This works especially well for a row of printers or Research Chambers.

The main idea is simple:

collect or generate materials,
buffer them in storage,
use Auto Arms to move them,
and trigger machines with repeaters or sensors.

Smelting and fuel automation

Carbon is especially valuable in automation because it gives high power yield when used in a Medium Generator.

Organic fuels a Small Generator for 120 seconds at 2U/s, producing 240 Units.
Carbon in a Medium Generator runs for 120 seconds at 9U/s, producing 1080 Units.
Smelting Organic into Carbon takes 60 Units in a Smelting Furnace.

This makes Carbon a strong choice for automated power stations. Tappers can be used to create automated Carbon-burning power stations.

Alloy automation

Aluminum Alloy is one of the composite resources that can be automated in more than one way.

Auto Extractors can mine both required resources, then a train can move the mined resources to a Chemistry Lab.
Scrap can be spent on the Trade Platform to buy the raw resources, which can then be fed to a Chemistry Lab on the same platform or via Auto Arms.

Nanocarbon Alloy

Auto Arms can also be used to automate the creation of Nanocarbon Alloy.

Research and bytes automation

Automation can extend into research loops as well as manufacturing.

Small items can be researched until they have only 1 byte remaining and then used normally.
Medium Resource Canisters and Large Resource Canisters do not store the remaining research-byte value for each item.

This makes it possible to build a byte-producing loop by dispensing an item for research, waiting until it is nearly finished, storing it again, and repeating. With the right timing, this can be turned into a steady automated research flow.

Getting started with automation

A simple first automation setup usually starts with one of these ideas:

use a Button Repeater to toggle a printer, Research Chamber, or other module,
use an Auto Arm to move small items between storage and machines,
use a Storage, Battery, or Power sensor to trigger actions when a state changes,
use an Auto Extractor with a canister to collect resources with minimal supervision.

From there, automation scales naturally into larger systems: mining, sorting, smelting, research, and power generation can all be linked into one base-wide network.