I'm suspecting that this occurs when the drone bay ticks over the armour segment repair
Return the auton to the ship, and try to repair it at the shop. Occasionally an error as follows will occur:

sav
jtthejam-0353.sav
20210908161153_1.jpg
20210908161153_1.jpg
jeremmt 10 Sep 2021:

NOTE: duplicate of issue provided by giantcabbage https://ministry.kronosaur.com/record.hexm?id=96574

george moromisato 9 Oct 2021:

Fixed in 1.9 RC 1. Thank you!