Auto Arm

The Auto Arm is a powered automation item used to move and store objects without direct player handling. It is especially useful for sorting and transferring small items, and it works well with Medium Resource Canisters and Large Resource Canisters. Once placed, it scans a defined input area, picks up qualifying items, rotates, and places them into a free slot within its output area, repeating the process continuously while active.

To operate, the Auto Arm must be placed in a powered medium slot. After receiving power, it can be toggled manually or by a sensor or repeater. Its input and output ranges can be seen by hovering over it: the input area is marked with a green circle, and the output area is marked with a blue circle. If no output slot is available, the arm holds the item until space opens up. The center slot functions as a filter slot; placing an item there makes the Auto Arm collect only that item type. It draws power whenever it is switched on, even when it is not moving anything.

The Auto Arm can interact with most tier 1 items and can reach upward to higher slots, although that upward range is not infinite. Commonly handled objects include:

• Tethers
• Glow sticks
• Small debris pieces, such as broken tethers, wind turbines, and solar panels
• Research samples
• Tier 1 boxes
• Items from the Ingredient Platform, Backpack Printer Platform, and certain items from the Small Printer Platform

There are a few important limitations to its behavior:

• It does not take items from the Astroneer’s Backpack.
• It does not take items directly from other Auto Arms or from another arm’s filter slot.
• It cannot place items into another arm’s filter slot.
• It cannot place items directly into printer slots.
• It can place items into the player’s Backpack and Terrain Tool.

Auto Arms were found around destroyed EXO Dynamics delivery crates or scattered across planets, making them a recoverable piece of early automation equipment. Because the arm both consumes power continuously and depends on accessible input/output space, placing it where item flow is predictable is key to making it efficient. It is most useful in compact automation setups, item sorting lines, and transfer chains where small objects need to be moved repeatedly between nearby storage or processing stations.