About the Robots
The C Quadrant Defenders employ a variety of robots in a multitude of tasks, not just in combat.
For repair, maintenance, and other simple chores, three varieties of small assistant robot are used: Type A, B and C robots.
Each type is designed with certain helpful features to act as an extra set of hands, serve as a mechanic, or be a friendly pet.
They aren't just limited to military applications, but are popular on civilian spacecraft for their compact size and resistance to radiation.
These little automatons are not sentient, nor do they have artificial intelligence per se.
But they can learn from their environemnt and remember data.
Their spoken language is not quite what one would expect, their speach synthesizers intentionally primitive to avoid the uncanny valley.
They comunicate with each other using modulated high frequency tones, with some overlap into the human hearing range.
Their on-board processors comprehend spoken commands from humans quite well.
These robots are not something natively from Earth, but rather a product of a civilization in the star system known as Volonos.
The Volonians were happy to offer their robot technology for sale to the CQD, and customize them to the needs of the fleet.
Today we will be given a demonstration from Captain Haley, an expert in these robots.
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The full range of robots.
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Captain Haley: "This is a Type A robot. Good for running around, carrying stuff, and operating very simple tools and machinery."
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"They arent particularly good at unsupervised repairs, but otherwise they make great assistants."
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"Their arms extend, and the gripper rotates. They have little tiny wheels under them to scoot around."
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"Oh, and can't forget one of the most useful features: the headlight! Helps you stay hands-free."
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"They're good all-around robots. From bringing you tools, to your dinner, the Type A series is a jack of all trades."
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"And they come in a wide variety of colors to suit the environment."
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"Onto the Type C. Again, they include a headlight, and have a longer, shorter chassis."
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"The longer chassis is with good reason. their reach is unsurpassed by other assistant robots."
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"They can reach pretty far infront of them. They share a power cell in common with W-series combat robots, but an optional solar panel is available for supplementary power."
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"The Type C is great for repair work, dangerous tasks, hauling small objects, and getting into tough to reach places."
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"The last type of robot we'll be looking at are the Type B specialized series. These are modified Type A and C chassis."
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"Like 'Mr. Coffee-bot' as we like to call it. Great for food service in field operations. It can brew tea too!"
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"Or a Type A with a modified gripper."
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"The most popular is the welding variant. The swivel base makes it ideal for rapid field repairs."
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"Their highly specialized design doesn't lend them to generalist tasks like the Type A or C"
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These little guys are one of my favorite things to build.
I think I've been making variations on these since about age 10, when I saw the movie Silent Running for the first time.
The repair drones in the movie captivated me in a similar manner to R2-D2, but they had a different vibe to them.
They also take inspiration from the real world Heathkit Hero robot line, of which I have a pair of examples.
The caption style, as if you were sitting in a presentation from Captain Haley is one of my favorites.
Feels like we're getting a perspective from within the universe, rather than an omniscient viewpoint.
The photography here was done with limited lighting resources, and the details are lost as a result.
This was posted to MOCpages in April of 2008.
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