Robot

General term for non-magical artificial life forms. Most robots trace their design lineage back to the Gate Dimension, where the first sapient humanoid robot was built over 1300 years ago. Since that time, Gatian robotics technology has expanded by leaps and bounds.

The technology to create sentient robots is closely guarded by the Guardians and Tasnicans, in the interest of preserving the rights of artificial intelligences as individuals. Both nations are major producers of robots, and both nations also have strict laws in place that establish and enforce the rights of robots as citizens.

Artificial Intelligence

There are three broad categories of AI, as defined in the Gatian robotics tradition.

Class 1 AI Designation

("Super-Computers") Super computers are massive, multi-function AI constructs that are stored entirely in collossal mainframes rather than humanoid bodies. The sheer processing power and intellectual capacity of super computers is enormous, but they often do not have the personality, emotional complexity or independence of sentient robots.

Super-computers in Guardia

The most prominent Class 1 AI in Guardia is the Mother Brain. This super-computer is tied into many domestic systems in the Kingdom of Guardia, and is nearly as vital to Guardia's day-to-day functioning as any civic, prefectural or royal organ of government. The Mother Brain and other Class 1s do not gain full legal "person" status under Guardian law (see "Droids in Guardia" below), but there are provisions of the Code of Prometheus which specifically address Class 1s: in particular the government's responsibility to ensure "avoidance of maltreatment" and "access to regular maintenance" for all Class 1 AIs which perform civic functions, and the responsibility of private corporations and citizens to do the same or else face criminal charges of neglect.

Class 2 AI Designation

("Droid") This is the designation given to sentient robots, commonly referred to as "droids." There are several models (also called "series") in production, though a droid's series generally has no effect on how it is regarded by law.

Droids in Guardia

In Guardia, robots of Class 2 AI Designation enjoy full rights and priveleges as citizens of the Kingdom, as given in the Code of Prometheus. The Code, which is very short, given its importance in Guardian law, basically codifies into law the principle that, in all places except as indicated within the Code, intelligences of Class 2 AI Designations are to be considered legal "persons" in the eyes of the law and government. Previously, during the Syndicate Era and prior to the rise of the Tech Syndicate, this was not the case; and so you had the Syndicates, governments and wealthy households abusing robotic labor in a system of effective slavery. Because Class 2 intelligences have no way to reproduce on their own, the GRC's robotics production facilities now operate under the auspices of an adoption agency, which allows robotic (and non-robotic) "parents" to "adopt" a naiscent intelligence and raise it (or him/her, as most Class 2 droids take on gender roles as part of their personality profile) as a child.

Class 3 AI Designation

("Drone") These are limited, bare-bones AI machines, commonly called "drones." Often Class 3 drones have very simple, single-function designs to go along with their limited AI. Most military AI falls under the Class 3 designation. Drones are not built with functions of reasoning, and their logic threshold is abysmally low. Some drones are assisted in their task either by a controlling Class 1 AI, or by human supervision.

Drones in Guardia

These AI do not gain legal "person" status under the Code of Prometheus, but are still protected by the Code's labor regulations (which require regular periods of maintenance for Class 3 drones, as well as enforced intensive labor hour restrictions and other protections set in place to ensure Class 3 drones can perform their tasks without being "worked to death" by their owners).

Robot Types

Droids

R-Series/RT-Series

By far the most popular robot design in the Web of Worlds, the R-Series is the GRC's signature sentient model. The R-Series design was licensed to the Tasnican Government, which in turn sub-licensed it to Forge Mechanicals. Forge then used the design to manufacture its line of RT-Series droids. For all practical purposes, there is no real design difference between R and RT-Series robots; the "RT" serial prefix is simply a sign that the droid in question was manufactured in Tasnica.

The R-Series model is fully humanoid, with four articulate limbs, and stand at a uniform height of approximately six feet six inches. Its body construction is simple, consisting of a roughly cyllindrical metal torso, a dome-capped head and two camera eyes (which are the only visible component of the R-Series' complex sensor suite). Its arms are longer than human proportion, and end in simple manipulator-claw hands which afford comparable articulation and dexterity to the human form. The civilian model R-Series is not equipped with weaponry, but does come standard with a curative Enertron laser module and six expansion bays that can be utilized for robotics upgrades.

B-Series

The B-Series is the smallest of Gate's sentient robot models. Originally, the B-Series model was designed as a pest-control unit, whose AI was steadily upgraded to sentient levels with subsequent model upgrades in order to increase its efficacy at killing pest populations. The B-series unit consists of a "head" segment, three feet in height and slightly more than two feet wide (of similar scale proportion to a human head). The head segment is where the meat of the droid is located; its circuitry and AI unit are embedded into this central segment, as well as its sensory perception equipment, which is mostly located on its "face." Four spiderian legs sprout from the base of the "head" to provide movement. B-Series droids have "arms" in the form of a pair of extending cables originally intended as extermination aids. These cables sprout from the top of the unit's head, and are equipped both with manipulator claws (sharpened into blades in the original design, but dulled into "fingers" in the civilian model) and microcameras. These cables were used by the B-Series to get at prey in hard-to-reach locations, and so were once very very long. However, in the modern civilian unit, the B-Series' arms are shortened to more humanoid proportions (though an optional after-manufacture modification allows for their extension).

In the original design, the B-Series came standard with lasers and a minor SuperVolt coil to assist it in its function as an exterminator. Civilian models today are stripped down, and in place of these once standard armaments they now have two additional expansion bays (bringing the unit's total expansion capacity to four bays).

C-Series

The original sentient humanoid robot, the C-Series has been a staple of Guardian life since its invention one thousand years ago by Lucca Ashtear. The only thing Lucca's C-Series has in common with the C-Series of today is the basic design of the exterior casing; the modern C-Series is as dependable and up-to-date as the R-Series. Only, the C-Series is much bigger, standing seven feet three inches, and being nearly four feet wide.

Like the R-Series, the C-Series is fully humanoid, with articulate limbs and all, plus an additional fifth limb which extends and retracts from the C-Series' belly. This fifth limb is versatile, and can be equipped with any number of tools depending on the C-Series' chosen occupation. One downside to the C-Series that cannot be overlooked, however, is its size and cumbersome nature. In this regard the R-Series might be considered "superior," in that its more compact form allows it greater versatility, and makes it much more practical for integration into society.

The principle benefit of the C-Series over the R-Series is its wealth of expansion bays: a C-Series, owing to its size, can take nearly twice as many additional expansion modules as the R-Series (11 expansion bays total, not including the modular attachments for the C-Series' fifth limb). Bulk is often a factor in the choice to adopt, however, and so more often than not only those with a special need for the C-Series' extra expansion bays pick the C-Series over the R-Series.

P-Series

The P-Series is built with a "cycloid" configuration; it is a roughly humanoid torso, bottomed off with a single cycle wheel, upon which it stands and moves. Balance while standing is attained through the P-Series' internal gyroscopic modulator device, which in turn gives the P-Series one of the most impeccable intuitive senses of balance yet seen in AI. The cycloid configuration affords the P-Series great rapidity of motion; its cycloid drive speed is far greater than the fastest R-Series run speed, and is in fact on par with civilian vehicular drive speeds.

The obvious drawback to cycloid configuration is inaccessibility, as a cycle wheel cannot easily negociate stairs or other terrain obstacles. A post-manufacture upgrade, popular with most P-Series, is the incoropration of limited hovering into their movement, negating this concern. The P-Series does not have humanoid limbs, as such. At its "shoulders" (which are basically at-level with the neckless droid's shell-covered head) are a pair of retractable manipulator "clam" claws, which can extend on serpentine cable-arms to afford the P-Series some articulation, though this is imperfect at best.

A post-manufacture upgrade to the P-Series can replace these clam-claws with cybernetic hands, but as the clam-claws house the P-Series' Enertron laser bank structures most P-Series do not opt for this upgrade. The P-Series is, in size, comparable to the R-Series, and has a similar number of expansion bays (five, not including claw articulation upgrades and hover jet upgrades).

Tetujin

Ancient by most standards, the Tetujin were built 5000 years ago in Ticondera. Though obviously creatures of technological origin, it is clear that they are inherently magical and so are most often grouped together with Golems.

Tetujins are able to build more of their kind on their own; no manufacturer produces these creatures. They are innately capable of limited magic use, mostly the expulsion of lightning-based spells and the creation of magitech laser beams.

Tetujins are extremely rare and almost never found in modern Ticondera, though a few rare specimens emerge from time to time.

V-Series

A native Tasnican innovation based upon the knowledge gained from the Guardian AI license, Forge Mechanicals is the sole producer in the Web of this droid series. The V-Series bears a simple, cyllindrical body configuration, and was initially designed as a piloting/navigation droid. However, the current model upgrade (the V3) boasts a Class 2 intelligence on par with the R-Series, making it equally as versatile.