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Reliance on software is one of those things, no matter how reputable they are, there's bound to be glitches or bugs, no matter what application.
For sophisticated remote observatories, they'd have more than one software in the solution, so multiple levels of redundancy.
Even at parkes RT, they have a dead man's switch, that is no movement of the operator for 15 mins, the alarm goes off.
A backup plan or mechanical fallback with a trip switch makes sense for unmanned sessions. critical bit will be placement of the sensor or switch and using the simplest type of switch.
It won't be long before the mount motor controllers come with stall detection so the stepper controller stops the motor if there's a stall like the trinamic ones. that's based on electrical feedback.
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