[Andy A.]

Under the circumstances, disconnecting the battery would have been the safest thing. The priority should be to depower the robot, and the very busted up breaker, ASAP.

While not good practice, breaking the connection at the Anderson while the robot is 'live' isn't particularly hazardous to operator or robot. By design, any arcing will occur while the Anderson is still enclosed. So while it may score the contacts a bit, that's the worse case scenario. As long as it's not an every day occurrence you won't notice.