Quick Answer: Before signing a robot vendor contract, conduct due diligence across financial stability, technology maturity, support infrastructure, customer references, and contract terms. These 25 questions identify risks that vendor presentations are designed to conceal. A thorough due diligence process takes 2-4 weeks and can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in avoided mistakes.
Why Due Diligence Matters in Robotics
The robotics industry has over 500 companies selling automation solutions, ranging from well-funded public companies to pre-revenue startups. Between 2020 and 2025, at least 40 robotics startups shut down or were acquired in distress sales, leaving customers with unsupported equipment.
Due diligence is not bureaucratic overhead — it is risk management for a 5-7 year capital investment.
Section 1: Financial Stability (Questions 1-5)
Question 1: What is your annual revenue and growth rate?
Why it matters: Revenue indicates market traction. Growth rate indicates momentum. A vendor with $10M+ ARR growing over 30% annually is materially different from one with $2M growing at 10%.
Red flag: Unwillingness to share even approximate revenue figures.
Question 2: What is your funding history and current cash position?
Why it matters: Robot companies burn cash. You need to know if your vendor will exist in three years.
What to look for: Total funding raised, date and size of last round, and the identity of lead investors. Top-tier VC backing (Sequoia, a16z, Lux Capital) signals rigorous financial diligence has already been performed.
Red flag: No funding round in over 24 months, or a down round (lower valuation than previous round).
Question 3: How many customers represent more than 10% of your revenue?
Why it matters: Customer concentration is a risk indicator. If one customer leaving would create a financial crisis, the vendor is fragile.
Acceptable answer: No single customer over 20%, top 10 customers under 60% of revenue.
Question 4: What is your path to profitability?
Why it matters: Profitability or a credible path to it means the vendor controls its own destiny rather than depending on the next funding round.
Red flag: No clear answer or obvious discomfort with the question.
Question 5: Do you have source code escrow provisions?
Why it matters: If the vendor goes under, escrow ensures you can access the software needed to maintain and operate your robots.
Best practice: Require source code escrow with a trusted third party, triggered by bankruptcy, acquisition, or failure to provide support.
Section 2: Technology Maturity (Questions 6-10)
Question 6: How many robots do you have deployed and operational today?
Why it matters: Deployed count indicates technology maturity and production capability.
Benchmarks: Under 100 units is early-stage, 100-500 is growth-stage, over 500 indicates proven technology.
Question 7: What is the documented uptime across your installed base?
Why it matters: Vendor-claimed uptime and actual measured uptime frequently diverge.
What to look for: Fleet-wide uptime data, not cherry-picked from best-performing sites. Ask for the methodology — how is uptime measured, and does it include planned maintenance?
Target: 92% or higher fleet-wide uptime is acceptable; 95%+ is excellent.
Question 8: What is your software release cadence and roadmap?
Why it matters: Active development indicates ongoing investment and continuous improvement.
What to look for: Monthly or quarterly software releases, a published 12-month roadmap, and evidence that customer feedback influences priorities.
Red flag: No updates in over six months, or a roadmap that does not address known limitations.
Question 9: What third-party certifications does your system hold?
Why it matters: Independent certification (CE, UL, ANSI/RIA R15.08) validates safety claims and is often required by insurance and regulatory bodies.
Must-have: CE marking (Europe) or UL listing (North America) for the specific robot model being proposed.
Question 10: How do you handle edge cases and exceptions?
Why it matters: Every warehouse has unusual situations: fallen product, unusual packaging, temporary obstacles. How the robot handles these determines real-world performance.
What to look for: Specific exception-handling protocols, remote intervention capability, and data on exception frequency at existing deployments.
Section 3: Support and Service (Questions 11-15)
Question 11: What are your support SLAs and what happens when you miss them?
Why it matters: SLAs without financial consequences are suggestions, not commitments.
What to negotiate: 4-hour response for critical issues, 24-hour for non-critical, with service credits for SLA misses.
Question 12: Where is your nearest service technician to our facility?
Why it matters: Remote support handles 60-70% of issues, but physical presence is needed for hardware failures.
Target: Within 4 hours of travel time. Farther than that, negotiate on-site spare parts inventory and trained local support.
Question 13: What spare parts do you maintain domestically?
Why it matters: A motor failure requiring a 6-week international shipment turns a 4-hour repair into weeks of downtime.
What to look for: Domestic parts warehouses with inventory of critical components (motors, sensors, controllers, batteries).
Question 14: What training programs do you offer for our team?
Why it matters: Long-term operational success depends on your team's ability to manage, troubleshoot, and optimize the system.
What to look for: Initial training (operators, maintenance, IT), ongoing certification programs, and access to training materials and documentation.
Question 15: How do you handle software security and updates?
Why it matters: Connected robots are cybersecurity targets. A compromised fleet management system can halt your operation.
What to look for: Regular security patching, penetration testing, SOC 2 compliance, and clear data handling policies.
Section 4: Customer References (Questions 16-20)
Question 16: Can you provide three references at facilities similar to ours?
Why it matters: Similarity matters — a reference from a 1M sq ft Amazon fulfillment center tells a 50K sq ft distributor very little.
Match on: Facility size, industry, product type, order profile, and fleet size.
Question 17: What is your customer retention rate?
Why it matters: The percentage of customers who renew contracts or expand deployments is the purest measure of satisfaction.
Benchmark: Over 85% retention is healthy; over 90% is excellent. Under 75% is a significant warning sign.
Question 18: Can you share a case where a deployment did NOT go well?
Why it matters: Every vendor has failures. How they handle failure tells you more than their successes.
What to listen for: Honest acknowledgment, specific lessons learned, and changes implemented as a result.
Question 19: What is the average time from contract to productive operation?
Why it matters: Deployment timelines directly affect your ROI schedule and business planning.
Benchmark: 6-12 weeks for AMR deployments, 12-20 weeks for complex systems. Ask for the range, not just the average.
Question 20: What percentage of pilots convert to full deployments?
Why it matters: A high conversion rate means the technology works as promised in real conditions.
Benchmark: Over 70% pilot conversion is healthy. Under 50% suggests the technology underperforms expectations.
Section 5: Contract Terms (Questions 21-25)
Question 21: Will you agree to performance-based pricing or penalties?
Why it matters: Vendors confident in their technology will share performance risk.
What to negotiate: Guaranteed throughput rates, uptime SLAs, and accuracy levels with financial consequences for missing targets.
Question 22: What are the terms for scaling up or down?
Why it matters: Your automation needs will change. You need flexibility.
What to look for: Ability to add units at locked pricing, ability to return units without penalty (RaaS), and reasonable minimum commitment periods.
Question 23: What happens if we want to terminate the contract?
Why it matters: Exit provisions protect you if the technology underperforms or your business needs change.
What to negotiate: Termination for convenience with 90-180 day notice, termination for cause with 30-day cure period, and reasonable equipment return or buyout terms.
Question 24: Who owns the operational data generated by the robots?
Why it matters: Your operational data has significant value. Ensure you retain ownership and access rights.
Non-negotiable: You own your data. The vendor may use anonymized, aggregated data for product improvement, but your specific operational data belongs to you.
Question 25: What technology refresh and upgrade provisions are included?
Why it matters: Robot technology evolves rapidly. A 5-year contract without upgrade provisions locks you into aging technology.
What to negotiate: Software updates included, hardware refresh options at year 3-4, and access to new features as they are released.
Using This Checklist
Print this checklist and bring it to every vendor meeting. Score each answer on a 1-5 scale and track responses across vendors in a comparison matrix. The vendors who answer every question openly and with data are almost always the ones worth partnering with.
Find vendors to evaluate with the Robot Finder and model the financial impact with our TCO Calculator.