Factorio – Monitoring Total Robots in System

factorio

I have automated logistic/construction robot building. I'm trying to control robot production based on the total number of robots in the system. Is there any way to monitor the total number of robots as it's displayed in the Roboport status window?

For example, if I want to ensure that I have 100 construction robots and if it falls below that number I'd like to activate my construction otherwise it stays idle.

Best Answer

Yes, although only within a given network.

By connecting a Roboport to the circuit network, you can obtain from it the total and available number of both robot types for that logistic network. You can then use this information to cut production of robots (e.g. by deactivating inserters).

If you want, as stated in your example, start production whenever you have less than 100 robots, use the available numbers, which count the robots that are currently idle, while the total numbers counts all robots in the network, idle or working.

Not without mods.

If you need to do this and don’t want to use mods, you can just place a requester chest next to each turret and use an inserter to move bullets from the chest into the turrets themselves. (You could also just have the chest unload onto a belt that unloads into turrets if you don’t want to use so many request chests, but in practice there’s not much difference.)

If you are willing to use mods, the Logistic Turrets mod adds turrets that directly request bullets from the logistics network.

Factorio Roboports Guide – How Construction Robots Select Roboports for Recharging

The penalty is calculated for every roboport in the network this way:

distanceToTheRoboportInTiles * 2 +
countOfOtherRobotsWaitingToChargeThere +
countOfOtherRobotsWaitingToStationThere

The roboport with smallest penalty is chosen. This means, that for every extra tile of distance, there needs to be 2 less robots waiting for charge to make it worth to fly there. To be honest I'm not really sure if the constant of 2 is proper and we might change it in the future.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Factorio – How Robots Fill Turrets with Bullets

Not without mods.

Factorio Roboports Guide – How Construction Robots Select Roboports for Recharging

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