Roboport

A roboport is the central structure of a logistics and construction robot network. It creates a logistic zone and a construction coverage area around itself, providing storage, charging, and a resting place for robots. A roboport is also the point through which robots are inserted into or removed from a stationary network.

Internally, a roboport has 7 inventory slots reserved for 50 robots of the same type each, plus 7 slots for repair packs. Robots and repair packs can be inserted with an inserter, and robots can also be removed with an inserter. Repair packs stored in a roboport are available to all robots and requester chests inside that roboport’s logistic zone, and construction robots supplied with repair packs will automatically repair damaged structures within the roboport’s coverage area.

A roboport contains 4 chargers, so several roboports placed close together increase charging throughput when many robots need power. Robots waiting to charge will hover near the roboport until a charger is free. Robots do not enter a roboport to rest unless they are fully charged; if they have little or no charge, they can still fly, but very slowly. If a roboport is full of robots, robots trying to rest will look for another roboport instead, if one is available.

The roboport GUI can be used to request idle robots from other roboports by setting robot requests. This makes it possible to ask for a minimum number of a specific robot type or quality, then remove them with a filtered inserter to gradually clear a logistics network of that type. Unlike logistic requests, roboport requests only set a minimum count and cannot set a desired upper limit. Request groups can also be named, and other roboports using the same name will share the same requested count and receive updates when the group changes. These names are separate from logistics group names, so a roboport request group and a logistics group with the same name are not the same thing.

An entity with an equipment grid, such as a character wearing armor that provides one, a tank, or a spidertron, can equip a personal roboport or personal roboport MK2 to act as a mobile roboport. This mobile network uses the entity’s own inventory for robot, item, and repair pack storage, and it is separate from any stationary roboport network. It does not share robots or items with other networks. Since it has only one inventory, a personal robot network has no use for logistic robots. Its logistic requests and trash slots still belong to the logistic network the entity is standing in and are handled by that network’s robots, while its construction robots cooperate with other networks to complete construction tasks as quickly as possible.