Having trouble figuring out robots' decision making

[thatguy321]

Hello!

Been running experiments trying to figure out how robots decide where to store things that you have told them to deconstruct. Please correct me if my observations are wrong!! It appears to me that for the most part they try to consolidate items. For example, they will avoid placing into an empty brown/yellow logistics storage chest in favor of bringing those items to a chest with similar items (like bringing all the fast inserters to a chest which already has some fast inserters in it) even if an empty chest is right next to the deconstruction zone.

However, there are some instances where I have seen them fly way across the map to deposit fast inserters into a chest with fast inserters inside of it even there was a already a chest with fast inserters in it right next to the deconstruction zone! I thought I had figured out the pattern, but sometimes it seems random! Any ideas?

Thanks! I hope your weekend is awesome and full of Factorio!

[Harkonnen604]

Robots do consolidate items, but if you put single piece of item type into a chest nearby, they will prefer that chest for deconstruction. well, usually

[Frightning]

I believe the bot logic for placing things in storage is this:
-Put item into nearest empty storage chest that has room and has another of that item in it.
-Else put item into nearest storage chest that has room with items in it (Note: in this case, the storage chest must have an empty stack otherwise item cannot be placed in it).
-Else put item into nearest empty storage chest.

[daniel34]

I believe the bot logic for placing things in storage is this:
-Put item into nearest empty storage chest that has room and has another of that item in it.
-Else put item into nearest storage chest that has room with items in it (Note: in this case, the storage chest must have an empty stack otherwise item cannot be placed in it).
-Else put item into nearest empty storage chest.

I think points 2 and 3 are switched. I always place enough storage chests to have only one type of item in each chest so their contents are easy to see in ALT-mode. I've never had a robot place an item in a chest with other unrelated items when another chest was still empty.

[Nexela]

Hello!

However, there are some instances where I have seen them fly way across the map to deposit fast inserters into a chest with fast inserters inside of it even there was a already a chest with fast inserters in it right next to the deconstruction zone! I thought I had figured out the pattern, but sometimes it seems random! Any ideas?

They are just simple robots!!!! What is probably happening is this (and this is a wild guess)

You call a robot to deposit an item. The system finds an available robot, the robot scans around for a requester wanting items, then the closest storage chest (to the robot) to put the item, first looking for available chests with the item, then an empty chest, then any chest with room. then robot gets the item and puts it away.
So if the robot is near the further chest it will use that chest rather then the closer one. This is probably all done right away to keep script times down and only gets updated when the robot reports (HEY! I have an item but no where to put it)

Again just a bunch of wold guesses but it shouldn't be too hard to do some basic tests

[Frightning]

I believe the bot logic for placing things in storage is this:
-Put item into nearest empty storage chest that has room and has another of that item in it.
-Else put item into nearest storage chest that has room with items in it (Note: in this case, the storage chest must have an empty stack otherwise item cannot be placed in it).
-Else put item into nearest empty storage chest.

I think points 2 and 3 are switched. I always place enough storage chests to have only one type of item in each chest so their contents are easy to see in ALT-mode. I've never had a robot place an item in a chest with other unrelated items when another chest was still empty.

You may be right, I haven't watched then all that closely for situations where both 2 and 3 could conceivably occur.