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Robot Trouble is the story of a high-minded but proud robot who, in dealing with the antics of the humans around him, discovers and accepts his own flaws.
When the Galactic Emperor plans a live broadcast to the Galaxy, his bumbling Ministers fear that Captain Helium, a notorious hacker, will sabotage the speech. They hire a crew to protect the network satellites, but the crewmembers are somewhat distracted by their personal agendas. After navigator Cory clumsily parks the spaceship in orbit, she goes off to a seedy bar with the ship’s captain Zack, who engages in his off-duty hobby of jewel smuggling. Kareen, the ship’s service rep, spends the evening entertaining the Emperor and his Ministers. And communications officer Celeste makes a seductive play for technician Derek, but he’s more interested in playing with the satellites, and rejects her.
Through all this, Hoova, their repair robot, watches helplessly as the crew ignores the threat to the speech and to his close friend, satellite Alpha. Programmed to act for the good of the Galaxy and confident in his own superiority, he comes up with a plan to take over as Emperor by faking the speech as a resignation. Setting up the fake, Hoova discovers that Captain Helium has already sabotaged Alpha; in his haste to fix her, he accidentally shuts off her communication and jeopardizes the speech. Derek suggests a way to do the broadcast, but Hoova would have to erase Alpha’s memory. As Act I ends, Hoova is torn between his duty to the Galaxy and his friendship with Alpha.
In Act II, Hoova submits to his duty and sadly resets Alpha. The fake speech works, and while the Ministers’ robots gleefully take over the Ministry, the crew comes up with a counter-plan. Zack will masquerade as Doctor Lou, the inventor of robots, and order Hoova and the robots to resign. As the plan gets underway, Celeste overhears Hoova questioning his competence and lamenting the loss of Alpha; sympathetic, she manages to find a saved copy of Alpha’s memory, and then discovers that Derek is secretly Captain Helium. Meanwhile, Kareen goes to the deposed Emperor to tell him of the plan; he is amazed at her loyalty and taken with her sincerity, and begins to fall in love with her. But Kareen doesn’t believe men can commit to romance, and backs off. And aboard the shuttlecraft, as Cory brings Hoova circuitously in from space, she injures her arm; a softened Hoova helps her out and they come to a better understanding of each other.
Back at the palace, Zack is transformed with great difficulty into the clean-cut Doctor Lou, and at his command Hoova resigns the throne. But the Emperor immediately abdicates it back to prove his love for Kareen. Just as suddenly, Celeste barges in and blackmails Derek about his secret identity to get a password to restore Alpha. Hoova is delighted when Alpha comes alive again, but he still wants to resign, claiming incompetence. The humans and Alpha convince him that while he’s not perfect, he can still do a great job.
Hoova decides to share the throne with the Emperor. Derek, impressed by Celeste’s devious side, teams up with her, and Kareen, convinced at last that the Emperor’s love is genuine, accepts him. Hoova assigns Zack and Cory a mission that allows them to wander the Galaxy, smuggling with impunity. As Robot Trouble ends, the humans and robots celebrate a new era of cooperation.