Do not start by pressing Reset. A stopped warehouse robot, conveyor, shuttle, or picking workflow may still contain electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, gravity, or mechanical energy, and a command could restart motion unexpectedly. Keep people out of the hazard area, identify whether the stop is a safety event or an equipment/process fault, record exactly what the system reports, and use your site’s approved procedure. Any guard removal, jam clearing, entry into a safeguarded zone, or repair belongs to trained and authorized workers using the employer’s energy-control program and the equipment manufacturer’s instructions.
1. Make the area safe before diagnosing anything
Stop and look for immediate danger
Tell nearby workers to stay clear of the robot cell, conveyor, pallet position, lift, or other affected zone. Do not assume that silence means the machine is de-energized. Drives can coast, suspended loads can drop, pneumatic pressure can remain, and a remote command or automatic restart can restore motion.
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- If anyone is injured, trapped, struck, or exposed to a chemical or electrical hazard, follow the site emergency and incident procedure first. Do not enter to rescue someone unless you are trained and the procedure authorizes it.
- Note smoke, burning odor, arcing, leaking fluid, damaged guarding, fallen loads, or a collision. Keep people away and escalate immediately rather than investigating up close.
- Do not defeat an interlock, mute an alarm, climb over guarding, reach through an opening, or ask an untrained person to enter a restricted area.
Classify the stop provisionally
A protective-device trip, emergency stop, light curtain interruption, gate opening, collision, or unexpected movement is a safety event until qualified personnel establish otherwise. A process fault may be less urgent, but it can still leave hazardous energy present. Treat every category as potentially hazardous until your local procedure confirms the controls and boundaries.
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2. Capture the system’s evidence
Before anyone cycles power or clears anything, preserve the information that can disappear after a reset. This record is a practical diagnostic aid, not a substitute for the site’s formal incident process.
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- Write down the exact alarm text, numeric code, and screen or panel where it appeared. Photograph the display if permitted by site policy.
- Record the time, date, robot or conveyor zone, station, order or pallet affected, and whether the stop is still active.
- Note what stopped: one robot, one conveyor section, a complete picking cell, or an upstream/downstream line.
- Record what happened immediately beforehand, such as a product miss, fallen carton, guard opening, tool change, software or recipe change, power event, maintenance activity, or unusual noise.
- Identify whether an operator acknowledged an alarm, pressed an emergency stop, opened a gate, or attempted a reset. Include the sequence and result.
Keep the original code and wording. Paraphrasing an alarm can send a technician toward the wrong subsystem, especially when a controller reports a fault generated by a sensor, end-effector, conveyor, or safety circuit elsewhere in the cell.
3. Decide whether the problem is local or shared
Automated picking is a chain of interacting equipment. A robot may be healthy while a conveyor, scanner, tote dispenser, controller, networked safety device, or downstream station has stopped the process. Conversely, a mechanical fault at the robot tool can block an entire line.
| Observed pattern | Likely diagnostic boundary | Safe operator action |
|---|---|---|
| One robot or station reports a fault while neighboring equipment runs | Local controller, tooling, sensor, axis, or station safety circuit | Record the code and keep clear; perform only external checks allowed by procedure |
| Several machines stop together | Shared safety circuit, controller, power distribution, network, or upstream/downstream interlock | Do not reset multiple devices; notify the designated automation or maintenance contact |
| Conveyor is stopped with product piled up or fallen | Material flow, jam, guarding, drive, or a transfer-point fault | Do not reach into the conveyor; follow the jam and lockout procedure |
| Robot is idle but the interface shows no clear alarm | Waiting for an interlock, order, tote, sensor confirmation, or communication handshake | Check status screens and visible external conditions without entering guarded space |
These patterns are clues, not diagnoses. The installation’s control logic determines which device owns the stop and which reset, if any, is permitted.
4. Check only safe, external conditions
Look without opening or reaching into machinery
From outside the guarded boundary, observe whether product has fallen, a tote is visibly misaligned, a route is blocked, a door is open, or a pallet has shifted. Do not remove a cover, reach between belts, pull a carton from a pinch point, or step inside a robot envelope while the equipment is energized or its energy status is unknown.
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Check the surrounding process
Confirm whether the station has the expected empty tote, carton, pallet, label, or order data. A robot can appear failed when it is correctly waiting for an upstream release, a downstream clear signal, or a confirmation that a gripper has placed an item. Verify these conditions through the approved operator display rather than by entering the cell.
Observe protective devices
Note an open gate, tripped light curtain, emergency-stop button, or safety scanner indication. Do not bypass or hold a device closed to test the machine. If a protective device will not reset, treat that as a safety-system fault requiring qualified service.
5. Understand the main fault domains
Controller and software state
Controllers may stop because of a program exception, an interlock that has not been satisfied, a communication timeout, or a drive fault. The alarm history and state screen can show whether the machine is stopped, paused, waiting, or in a faulted mode. Follow the manufacturer’s documented meaning for that exact model and software revision; similar wording can have different recovery rules.
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Vacuum grippers, clamps, forks, magnets, and tool changers can fail to confirm a pickup or release. A missing part, damaged tool, low air pressure, or sensor disagreement can halt motion. Do not put hands near the tool to test grip. Authorized personnel must isolate energy before inspection or adjustment.
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Sensors and transfer points
Photoeyes, proximity sensors, barcode readers, and position switches can be obscured, misaligned, damaged, or waiting for a product that never arrived. Operators may report a visibly dirty or blocked sensor from a safe position if the procedure allows; cleaning, realignment, or guard removal is maintenance work.
Conveyors and associated equipment
Drives, belts, rollers, transfers, lifts, sorters, and accumulation zones interact with the robot. A jam or fallen material can create stored energy and pinch hazards even after the conveyor stops. OSHA’s warehousing guidance says, “Conveyors: Inspect conveyors regularly,” and, “Ensure that pinch points are adequately guarded.”
6. Treat conveyor jams as energy-control work
OSHA advises employers to develop procedures for locking out conveyors when necessary, including when material has fallen off or become jammed, and to train workers in those procedures. A jam is not an invitation to use a broom, pull a carton, or reach under a belt while power remains available.
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- Stop the process using the normal control if that is safe, then notify affected workers.
- Follow the site’s written lockout/tagout or other energy-control procedure for the specific conveyor and connected equipment.
- Identify every energy source, including electrical supply, pneumatic or hydraulic pressure, gravity, stored belt tension, elevated loads, and energy fed from adjacent equipment.
- Authorized workers apply locks and tags, release or restrain stored energy, and verify isolation using the procedure’s test method.
- Only after isolation is verified may the jam be cleared or guards removed, and only by workers trained and authorized for that task.
- Before release, inspect the area, reinstall guards, remove tools and personnel, notify affected workers, and restore energy through the approved sequence.
A lockout/tagout kit can support this work, but the kit must match the machinery’s actual energy sources and your written program. It does not replace training, procedure, verification, or competent personnel.
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7. Know when to escalate immediately
Stop operator-level checks and call qualified maintenance, controls personnel, or the approved vendor support channel when any of these conditions applies:
- The alarm involves a safety circuit, emergency stop, collision, uncontrolled motion, or repeated unexpected restart.
- Access behind guarding, entry into a robot envelope, or removal of a cover is required.
- A jam cannot be seen and removed from outside the safeguarded area.
- There is electrical damage, a burning smell, leaking pressure, a suspended load, or structural damage.
- The same fault returns after the approved recovery step, spreads to other stations, or has no documented recovery.
- The display shows a code that the local manual does not explain, or the installation has recently been modified.
Provide the technician with the alarm capture, timeline, affected zone, recent changes, and photographs taken from a safe location. This short handoff is more useful than repeatedly resetting the machine and erasing the evidence.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.8. Restore operation only through the approved sequence
There is no universal warehouse-robot reset sequence. Depending on the installation, recovery may require acknowledging a safety event, clearing a controller state, homing an axis, confirming tooling status, removing a held order, or coordinating several stations. The correct sequence is the one documented for that machine and authorized by your site.
- Confirm that the cause has been identified or that the designated technician has accepted the fault for repair.
- Verify that all people, tools, loose products, and temporary barriers are accounted for and outside the hazard zone.
- Confirm guards, gates, scanners, emergency stops, and other protective devices are restored and functional according to procedure.
- Remove locks and tags only by the people who applied them, or by the employer’s documented removal process.
- Notify affected workers before re-energizing or restarting.
- Run the prescribed test or recovery cycle at the permitted speed and observation point. Watch for recurrence without entering the safeguarded area.
- Release production gradually, checking the first tote, carton, pallet, or order for correct routing and handling.
If the fault returns, stop repeating the sequence. Record the new code and escalate; repeated resets can mask a developing mechanical or safety problem.
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9. Apply the right rules and standards
OSHA’s warehouse guidance calls for an energy-control program with procedures, training, and periodic inspections for servicing and maintenance. Its industrial robot technical manual describes robot systems as integrated combinations of robots, controllers, sensors, end-effectors, power sources, and associated machinery. Troubleshooting can therefore involve more than the robot arm, and inspections should follow the recommendations of the robot and relevant equipment manufacturers.
OSHA’s robotics overview notes that accidents often occur during non-routine work such as programming, maintenance, testing, setup, and adjustment. OSHA does not have a single robotics-specific standard; other applicable OSHA requirements and consensus standards can still apply, depending on the workplace and jurisdiction.
ISO lists ISO 10218-1:2025, Robotics — Safety requirements — Part 1: Industrial robots, Edition 3, published in February 2025, for robots as partly completed machinery. Integration into more complex systems is addressed by ISO 10218-2. The standard’s catalog description is not a troubleshooting procedure, so use the complete applicable standard and the installation’s risk assessment rather than treating a catalog page as permission to perform a repair.
10. Improve the next response
Keep a useful fault log
Track recurring codes, station, product type, operating mode, environmental conditions, recent maintenance, and the eventual cause. Separate confirmed causes from observations and guesses. Trend information helps the responsible engineering team find recurring transfer, tooling, or control problems without turning an unverified theory into an operating instruction.
Make the handoff unambiguous
Post the approved escalation contacts, zone names, equipment identifiers, and the location of current manuals where operators can find them without entering a hazard area. Train workers on what they may observe, what they must never touch, and how to report a stop.
Review after a collision, injury, or near miss
Preserve alarms, photographs, and statements according to the incident process. Do not restart merely to prove that the system still runs. A 2017 OSHA incident record involving a conveyor drive-belt injury illustrates why servicing and unexpected energization require formal controls, not improvised recovery.
Quick Recap
11. A compact decision checklist
- People: Is anyone injured, trapped, or inside the hazard area? Follow emergency procedures.
- Energy: Has an authorized worker verified isolation, or is the machine merely stopped?
- Stop type: Safety device, collision, process wait, equipment fault, or unknown?
- Scope: One station or a shared line?
- Evidence: Exact code, time, zone, preceding event, and recent changes recorded?
- Visibility: Can the condition be observed externally without reaching, climbing, or removing guarding?
- Authority: Does the next action require trained, authorized maintenance or vendor support?
- Recovery: Is the sequence documented for this installation, with safeguards restored before restart?
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