Troubleshooting and Repair Tips for Robot Pet Malfunctions

While you don’t need to take your robot companion to the vet, a robot pet is still not free from problems — or rather, malfunctions. After all, a robot pet is manmade and issues, errors, and malfunctions may happen over time.

As we want to preserve the product lifespan of your robot pet as long as possible, here are a few troubleshooting and repair tips for common robot pet malfunctions.

Common Robot Pet Malfunctions and How to Troubleshoot Them

Before you can troubleshoot and attempt to repair your robot pet, you will first need to identify the problem and its source. For purposes of this guide, we will list down the most common robot pet malfunctions and how you can troubleshoot them yourself. Otherwise, issues outside of this article may require you to send back your robot pet to the manufacturer either for replacement or professional diagnosis and repair.

Power Issues

If your robot pet fails to turn on, then you may be experiencing power issues. To troubleshoot this, check the battery level (if applicable) of your robot pet. The manual your robot pet came with should indicate the different battery level signals it has.

If your robot pet can be charged via USB, make sure that you are using the right voltage and cable. Incorrect charging can cause the battery to blow or heat up resulting in power failure or internal damage. If your robot pet is battery-powered, then you may try changing the batteries. Be sure to use the right voltage and type!

Sensor Issues

You will know if the sensors of your robot pet are malfunctioning if it fails to perform certain tasks and respond to your prompts. When this happens, observe the sensor spots of your robot and see if it has any cracks or third-party items blocking it.

Perhaps some dirt, substances, or other items have been blocking the sensors so they cannot pick up your signals. If that’s the case, then simply cleaning the area can do the trick.

If the places where the sensors are found are cracked and damaged, then you may need to bring this over to the manufacturer so they may isolate the problem and hopefully repair it. As repairing sensors can be quite pricey, weigh in if having your robot pet repaired is better than purchasing a replacement.

Another way to troubleshoot sensor issues is to recalibrate your robot pet. If your robot pet comes with recalibration instructions, then you may try to calibrate the sensors yourself. Calibration solutions can vary from adjusting, tuning, or aligning certain sensors. If successful, then your robot pet should improve its performance and have working sensors again.

Software Issues

A robot pet is experiencing software issues if it starts to “act on its own”. A robot dog can suddenly bark without you commanding it or a robot cat can suddenly stop “communicating” or responding. While it can be quite spooky to see a robot pet acting up because of software issues, this can be easily fixed by updating the software.

Most robot pet models today have software installed into them so they may continue to learn and adapt. Make sure your robot pets are up to date with the latest software so bugs and issues can be prevented.

If your software is updated and your robot pet is still experiencing issues, then perhaps you will need to check the settings. Double-check if your robot pet has optimized settings and control. Otherwise, this could be the reason why your robotic companion has been acting up or lack thereof.

Hardware and Mechanical Issues

More often than not, a robot pet that is moving differently than how it usually does or is making noise may be experiencing some hardware and mechanical issues. To be sure, command your robot pet to perform all of its tricks so you can pinpoint what the issue may be.

If the issue points to a broken part, then common hardware solutions you can try are soldering, welding, sewing, or gluing the parts. If you see that an item is simply lodged into a joint, then you can carefully take this out to get your robot pet working normally again.

Final Note

Even the best robot pets can malfunction and experience issues over time. When this happens, one simply does not need to throw and replace the model right away, especially because some pet models can be expensive.

There are ways to troubleshoot and repair common robot pet malfunctions to fix or prolong the product lifespan of your beloved robotic companion.