AGV / AMR Troubleshooting: Causes & Fixes

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Problems on this page:

Navigation or localisation errors Battery or charging faults Safety stops or obstacle faults Vehicles blocking each other Load pick or drop errors Wi-Fi dropouts Wheel or drive wear Missions not created Vehicles waiting at doors or lifts

Battery or charging faults

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Short run time, fails to dock/charge, unexpected shutdowns.

Ageing battery or cells

Test capacity; replace degraded batteries.

Charger or contact fault

Clean charge contacts; service the charger/dock.

Docking misalignment

Align the dock; check approach navigation.

Prevention: Battery health monitoring, charger/contact upkeep, dock alignment.

Safety stops or obstacle faults

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Frequent safety stops, robot freezes on phantom obstacles.

Dirty or misaligned safety scanner

Clean and align the safety LiDAR; check fields.

Clutter or people in the path

Manage traffic lanes; keep paths clear.

Scanner field configuration

Review protective-field setup for speed/zones.

Prevention: Scanner cleaning/alignment, traffic management, field config.

Vehicles blocking each other

Hits OEE: Performance

Symptoms: Vehicles queue and wait at junctions and stations while work piles up.

Fleet manager traffic settings

Review the traffic rules and the right of way at junctions.

Layout bottlenecks

Add passing places or one-way loops.

More vehicles than the routes can carry

Check the fleet size against the routes.

Prevention: Wait times reviewed weekly from the fleet manager data.

Load pick or drop errors

Hits OEE: Quality

Symptoms: Loads picked off-centre, dropped short, or refused at the station.

Load placed off its marked position

Mark station positions clearly on the floor.

Damaged or non-standard pallets

Check pallets before they reach the station.

Load sensors dirty

Clean the sensors.

Prevention: Station checks weekly.

Wi-Fi dropouts

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Vehicles stop or slow down when they lose the network.

Coverage gaps

Survey the coverage along every route.

Roaming settings

Check the roaming settings with the vehicle maker.

Interference

Check channels and other radio sources.

Prevention: Network logs reviewed after every dropout.

Wheel or drive wear

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Noise from the drive units, wheel slip on turns, or drive faults that stop the vehicle.

Debris on the floor

Keep the routes clean and fix damaged floor joints.

Worn wheels

Replace wheels before the tread is gone.

Vehicles carrying more than their rated payload

Check loads against the payload rating.

Drive faults

Read the drive alarms and check the drive connections.

Prevention: Wheel wear measured on a schedule.

Missions not created

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Vehicles sit idle while work waits.

Interface to the MES or WMS failed

Check the interface and its error log.

Mission templates wrong after a change

Check the templates.

Side effects of a software update

Test updates before they reach the live fleet.

Prevention: Interface alarms monitored.

Vehicles waiting at doors or lifts

Hits OEE: Availability

Symptoms: Vehicles wait at automatic doors, fast doors or lifts and missions run late.

Door or lift signal not received

Check the link between the door or lift and the fleet manager.

Door sensor not seeing the vehicle

Adjust the door sensors.

Timeout settings too short or too long

Set timeouts to match the door speed.

Door fault

Check the door itself.

Prevention: Door and lift interfaces tested after any change.

Guidance only. Always follow lockout/tagout and your site's safe-work procedures, and verify against OEM manuals before acting.

Related equipment guides: industrial robot · pick and place · palletizer · depalletizer · electric forklift · AS/RS stacker crane · electric pallet truck

Stop the same fault coming back

Recurring AGV / AMR stops usually trace to a cause you cannot see by hand. The partner we recommend is Fabrico: it tracks OEE and downtime live from PLCs, IoT sensors or AI cameras; where cameras are fitted, the video of a stop sits next to its machine data so the cause can be reviewed; and a technician opens the work order from the stop in the same system. Data is hosted in the AWS EU region, and Fabrico and the company behind it hold ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO 9001.

Book a Fabrico demo

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Methods that cut recurring stops: the six big losses · root cause analysis · preventive vs predictive maintenance · TPM · SMED & changeover