Robots as Spaceships: Coms and Sensors

Back when we were nitpicking the gun-bot, we took a look at its comms and sensors.  We found that the comms were very good, but that was tempered by the assumption that the spaceship would be using them in space. We also found that its sensors were quite lack-luster.

It might be interesting to compare the weight to range scaling of communications in both spaceships and ultra tech, to analyze the peripheral vision of spaceship's sensors, or to reconcile spaceship sensor rules with the magnification rules, but we don't need to. Spaceships represents a fairly bare bones system of sensors for a single environment, while the Tech books have good statistics for sensors and communicators on a human and vehicular scale. We can use these on our robots and we and should use those on our robots. There are just a few decisions to make on each robot, and some things we should to be aware of when adding sensors.

A robot's comm systems can have varying levels of access to its computer. Some smart robots might completely firewall their comm system from their brain, while a remotely controlled drone may only be able to act through external instruction. Be aware that in addition to voice, the comms can send video, which is very common even at lower TL's, and data as well.

The "sensors" on a spaceship are usually only about the electromagnetic spectrum, but robots generally operate in much richer environments. Passive visual sensors across the electromagnetic spectrum, active sensor systems, and sonar are all options for detection. Sound detection is a good idea. Ultra Tech has "sound detectors" and ordinary microphones are an option as well (High Tech has a microphone with no penalties for hearing on page 41). Smell can be replicated through a chemsniffer (UT61). If you have TL10 technology, sensor gloves (UT67) can be added to give a sense of touch.

Its worth paying close attention to is the field of view a sensor system has. Many cameras will have at the very least no peripheral vision. Extra cameras can improve coverage... but it won't increase the ability to focus on more than one thing at a time. We should also remember that using magnification gives tunnel vision and only negates distance penalties, rather than providing a true bonus to seeing things.

The base perception of the robot depends on the AI. Most of the time, Per should be equal to IQ, but we can check what option from robot attributes we are using if in doubt.

Our robots now have a system for adding comms and sensors: Use the existing Gurps equipment. There are lots of options to choose from, all with tradeoffs and benefits. Happy Designing!