Bot Hardware
For bots that are bound to a mechanical body, there are almost infinite design possibilities. Unfortunately nearly all of them are focused on utilitarian purposes. These bots exist to do just one job and to do it incredibly well. They’re optimized like a factory and most of the time they just cannot do any job but the one they were built to do.
Perhaps the most common bot type is the Mech-loader. These bots operate on the docks of every station and even be stored on shipos for managing cargo. These machines are essentially self-driving forklifts. Some models have wheels, others have legs and arms. They can be built just to pick up pallets or be designed for general purpose hauling, lifting, and building.
The most common model is the UT-795. These were sent out in the first rounds of colonizations and have remained a staple ever-since. It’s rare to find one that hasn’t been extensively modified by a dozen owners. The original designed had heavy arms and legs with mag-clamps built in. They were bulky and slow but incredibly powerful. Resourceful colonists replaced their slower parts, added wheels, quick-change fittings, tool systems, and more. The modern incarnation of these machines is able to perform welding, demolition, construction, transportation, and questionably light tactical duties. They have a simple-level of intelligence.
Light-Mechs
Section titled “Light-Mechs”Smaller than loader mechs, sometimes on tracks, and often just as purpose built are things like breaching bots and janitorial units. These are often on tracks with a body built like a cart or a wagon. They have a special purpose and specific limbs for those purposes. They can’t be made to be multipurpose - it would just break their ability to function.
A breaching bot for example is usually a cube on tracks with a head. Its tool implements are stored inside an armored body. These machines can tear through a hull to breach, plant explosives, wedge into and force steel openings apart, and deploy portable shield panels among other things. They’re a staple in search and rescue as well as police actions. There was no need to complicate their design with human-features when they just need to roll up to a sheet of metal and beat it into submission or roll into place and sit there as a robotic shield.
Small ships are often fully automated. These are used on simple milk-runs. They go from Poli to New Athens with passengers, or in some cases may be used for longer-haul cargo flights. Bots in this category are still often Simple AI’s, but they often have multiple AI systems. A flight might have a Bot Pilot, a Bot Med System, and a Bot Security System. Each one is a simple intelligence, but together they string together enough to be a functioning body.
Most of the smaller ships have minimal security in place and some hacking to edit their manifests can get them moving on an unauthorized trip. Their security systems will intervene, so the barrier to entry isn’t 0. Some such bots can be bribed with offers of media and other human assets they don’t typically have access to - as long as you can interface and communicate in bot language.
Repair and maintenance bots work on about the same principal - just with a lighter body. Their interior holds dozens of tool arms. They can maneuver a station just fine. Some have tracks, magnetized wheels or even a more spider-like design to manuever the interior of a ship or station for any repair work. These formfactors work so much better than the human body.
Human-Like
Section titled “Human-Like”Lastly there are the human-like bots. These bots are designed to blend in. Some are spies fully posing as humans, some are for adult entertainment, and others are built purely for combat. This body is often used where a robot needs prolonged human interaction. They need to look friendly or they need to interface with human equipment. Sometimes the most effect small-combatant form is just human.
These bots can wear human armor, human clothes, and use weapon weapons and tools, in addition to whatever is built into their bodies. At first glance, they can pass as human if they have a human-skin to them (some are just human-shaped metal - much more obvious). They can be in a crowd and go entirely unnoticed at times.
In the current TV and VR shows, these are always the villains. A rogue unit that disguises itself as human until it can kill its prey. Some intend to overthrow humanity while others are just defective and go on a killing spree. They’re great fodder in the news and are often not well understood.