build No-kill one-way biobot trap

[Occam Blazer]

I use door permissions to "automate" some dupe tasks like sweeping the whole map. One set of dupes has access to an auto-dispenser with "sweep only" off and restrict access to the material pile. Another set of dupes can only access the material pile.

Biobots ignore door permissions, so they get into an infinite loop. >:-|

To get a little use out of the blighters I devised a one-way door for biobots to trap them somewhere they can do work - like clearing regolith.

 Biobots enter from the right and can only leave to the left

Your dupes will also get trapped here if you permit then in. Use door permissions to only allow dupes out. Place a small amount of something you don't use, like abyssalite or algae, on the weight plate and set the conveyor loader to load up only that element (allow manual use, uncheck sweep-only).

 

Automation

A 1 second delay prevents the door switch when a biobot walks over the weight plate.

 

Shipping

Add more rails to delay the door switch longer if your boibots can't path fast enough. Set the loader at a high priority like 7 or 8.

 

In action

This will trap all your biobots in one place. Make sure you can recover the steel somehow.

[ChrisPBacon000]

I applaud the time and effort you put into making this post and it seems ridiculous that such lengths are required to keep biobots out of restricted areas!

For their cost they just don't seems worthwhile. Am I missing something in my view of these things?

[LaShomb]

They can't climb poles so you could set it up so that dupes can use a pole to get in and make biobots and a pole to get out, then carefully control where they can go from there. The same is true for tubes I believe.

I'm trying to think about what things I actually want them to be doing late game so I can make sure to build around where I can pen them in.

Better door permissions would help a lot. If instead of assigning specific dupes, I could require a skill or skill level, that also applied to biobots, setting up systems would be a lot easier. Or all biobots could just show up as one entry on doors or in the priority table. Or the POI building could have some settings to control/limit them in some way.

Additional thought; they wouldn't be as annoying if they were on the second planetoid or if you could somehow send them there with the transporters. The issues come in when they have too much space to roam and they start taking tasks that take them ages to get to.

Maybe world gen could allow you to set them to be off the main planetoid.