Robopants

[Zor]

Something I was thinking about.

As an example, consider the B1 Battle Droids from Star Wars.



These robots are designed to enter combat situations. However, they have a lot of articulated joints. Dust and sand and grime and grit can be a problem to guns and vehicles and this bad boy has many more places to get bunged up with the crap, thus reducing combat effectiveness.

As such, if i managed to get into the position of being able to raise a robot army, i would issue them with these to improve performance...



Alright, not this design of pants in particular. But some type of cloth covering to cover up their joints to keep them from getting bunged up with dust. Also some robosleeves or a roboshirt for their arms for similar reason. But over-all I would say that Robopants would be higher priority.

Do you agree with me on this?

Zor

[Starglider]

Do you agree with me on this?

Look under your car and observe that driveshaft joints are covered by bellows style rubber boots, wheras simple rotating and sliding joints (e.g. trailing arm mounts, dampers) just have splash covers if that. Essentially simple bearings can usually be designed to reject ingress, wheras more complex joints are fully encapsulated (more to prevent lubricant contamination and wear/scoring than outright clogging). Star Wars materials technology almost certainly doesn't need to bother with flexible boots (which are inherently vulnerable to tearing), because they can trivially produce highly durable and effective rotating seals. So no not required.

[Crossroads Inc.]

So am I the only one who, when reading "Robopants" thought instead of TechnoTrousers?



On a more serious note...
zor I totally agree with your line of thinking.
If robots make it into production, and especially into military "Pants" and other coverings should be standard issue.

[StarSword]

With the B4 battle droids I remembered a detail that they were very shoddily built (because the Trade Federation are cheapskates), justifying why they're even worse shots than usual for SW mooks. It wouldn't be surprising if the joints did need more protection in high-grit environments than they actually have.

[Lord Revan]

Tbh seeing as only droids that I know of who wear consistently clothes are the human replica ones and even there it's for infiltration purposes and not for protection, this suggests that people in the Galactic Republic or the Galactic Empire don't consider putting pants on droids a major gain and droids been around for ages (at least since KOTOR if not earlier) so there's more then enough time to figure that out.

B1 droids (B4 in the Data prototype from ST:Nemesis) are indeed built cheaply however I can't remember a single instance of a B1 or a B2(Super Battle droid) breaking down due to wear and tear caused by insuffient protection for the joints.

[FaxModem1]

Could it also be because that the droids are programmed to do their own maintenance or have maintenance droids to do so that any gravel, sand, or water seeping in is below them?

[LaCroix]

You do know that even we do have things like sealed ball bearings?


I'd wager a bet that people able to do autonomous robotics simply have no need for protection covers, except you are talking about a protocol droid (not really outdoor types) created out of scrap parts on a sandy shithole like Tatooine, who keeps complaining about sand getting into his joints. (But then, this particular unit complains all the time, so it might just be a wuss...)

[Lord Revan]

the funny thing is that C-3PO does have flexible coverings in places where his outer plating doesn't reach (obviously it's due C-3PO being a suit worn by a real actor but that's out of universe)

[Lord of the Abyss]

So am I the only one who, when reading "Robopants" thought instead of TechnoTrousers?

I thought of these guys from Girl Genius, actually:

[Simon_Jester]

So am I the only one who, when reading "Robopants" thought instead of TechnoTrousers?

No. No you are not.

[biostem]

If an AK-47 can be made to still work, even after being immersed in mud, sand, and all other sorts of grime, then something like a robot's knee or other joints could be made similarly robust.

Given the overall shoddy nature of the B1s, however, I'd wager that the TradeFeds probably just keep tons of spare parts around, and swap entire limbs as needed - heck, they may even have an agreement with the manufacturer where they send parts back to them for refurbishment...

[Sea Skimmer]

The Ak-47 is so reliable because its action is massively overpowered, and then varies radically in rate of fire as it gets full of gunk and that power has to overcome it. This also makes it much less accurate. That design concept doesn't work out so well on a joint meant for walking or aiming.

[Simon_Jester]

One thing to consider is where the droids are likely to see the most use. If the Trade Federation spends a lot of time operating in deserts or jungles or volcanic hell-worlds, the threat of grit getting into a droid's mechanisms is a serious concern.

Is the Trade Federation fighting its battles in cities? Spacecraft? Airless moons? Those are environments with less ambient dust, where the designer might reasonably expect the droid to go longer without needing its joints cleaned out.

[MrDakka]

Zor, is this what you're thinking of?

[Lord Revan]

Tbh I think we're focusing too much on the B1 line that the Trade Federation has, as I stated previously I can't remember a single droid that wore flexible(possibly cloth like) coverings to protect the limb joints, some who use it for infiltration (Human replicate droids and the CIS infiltrators from the CGI Clone Wars series) or nostalgia/intimidation (General Grievous and his honor guard) but none for protection.

[Simon_Jester]

The B1-series is just a good example because they're designed for mass production, so they really should ALSO be designed for low maintenance needs, because maintenance and upkeep is going to be a killer on a product if you need to operate that product by the billion.

Most of the other droids we see in the movies had relatively bulky limb joints that would seem more insensitive to grit (R2-D2, a lot of the big boxy droids we see in the Jawa sandcrawler and Jabba's palace). Or are being produced in small numbers and can reasonably be assumed to receive lots of good maintenance care (Grievous's robot body).

[Sea Skimmer]

Grit in the desert ect... is a problem. The problem is the smaller the dust, the bigger the problem, and something like pants wont really help against dust finer then talcum powder. Its going to be internal sealing, plus lots of cleaning that does the job, something like the bellows on a car wheel hub isn't going to do much.

I'd issue the droids cleaning kits, elaborate context sensitive self cleaning programming, and call it a day. This way at least they dry out when they get wet rapidly, which is its whole own world of trouble for a bipedal combat robot. If you really wanted, one could also think about just designing the bearings with forced lubrication that constantly leaks out, to maintain a flow gradient against dirt infiltration. In most conditions I can't think though that battledriods, which are likely all electrically powered, really have all that big of a problem compared to the expected combat lifespan, which can't be much.

[MrDakka]

Grit in the desert ect... is a problem. The problem is the smaller the dust, the bigger the problem, and something like pants wont really help against dust finer then talcum powder.

Is this why the B1 droids suck so much at aiming?

They're relatively accurate when they're factory fresh, but as they are deployed to more and more battles, more and more grit accumulates in their joints until their accuracy drops off to the point where "veteran droids" are worse than newly manufactured droids.

[StarSword]

Is this why the B1 droids suck so much at aiming?

Nah, that's got a much more direct cause: The Trade Federation are colossal cheapskates and didn't want to cough up for a droid that could aim properly. Apparently the "line of musketmen" approach is cheaper.

[Zor]

Here's Boston Dynamic's Bigdog. Well it's not exactly pants that it has, rather than sleeves, but there are cloth coverings on the legs.

Zor