Robotics

[ghosty]

I don't recall seeing any robots in Trek, well aside from Data and Lore who are uniquely sentient ones. But I'm sure that there are robots if not just to do simple tasks like fetching and carrying. The cargo bay of any starship would have automated forklifts and pallet trucks to move cargo containers from place to place and I'm sure robots are used to clean hard to reach or dangerous parts of engineering (I mean sections of the warp core and nacelles are obviously radioactive). Also there would be automated repair droids to do routine repair work on do dangerous work under remote control.

[Phantom]

There were those little do-dads that had a mini-replicator tool mounted on them. Not sure if they are classed as robots as I think they became sentient at episodes end. They started out as robots though.

Other then that the only one I can think of were the inhabitants of Mudd's World and Raina Kopek, Flint's ward.

[Perrryyy]

There were the Pralor and the Cravic from the Voyager episode "Prototype". They were robots created to fight a war, but robots nonetheless.

There was also the computer in "A Taste of Armageddon" that registered dead in a war that should have been over long ago.

[Dan Gurden]

the sentient missiles, and Dreadnaught from Voyager could class as automated life-forms, but not quite robots... I think that the computer in Taste of Armageddon (and the computer in several other TOS episodes that I dont remember the names of ) would be more automated than robotic. Probably V'Ger too

Nomad became a robot after reconstruction...

And there was the central characters in Miles's story in 'Far Beyond the Stars'...

And lastly, Satans Robot... In the Dr Chaotica holodeck program.

[Robbert Raets]

What about mr. Tricorder, who loves scanning for lifeforms?

[Dan Gurden]

Come off it!!!

Everybody knows that Mr Tricorder was a puppet...

How are yu going to get on if you cant tell the difference between a Robot and a Puppet!

[Robbert Raets]

Using Mactavish's ALF document, you could actually write-up a sentient tricorder in LUGTrek stats. It'd be fun to have a PC who's carried around by the science officer.....

[StyroFoam Man]

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[ghosty]

Actually when I started this thread, I was talking about non-sentient labour saving types. Dumb drones that fetch and carry and do routine maintenance in dangerous areas of the ship...

Robb I like the sentient tricorder idea though, although I doubt the tricorder has enough memory to contain an AI.

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

The episodes in TOS with the robots I believe were called Mudd,I or somethin of the sort. If I remember correctly they were from a different "galaxy".

The episode were Data had those small robots, the Nanites from Kavis Alpha, I believe were sentient and one sacrificed himself to save the rest. Though they are not humanoid they did show some rudimentary sentience.

[Robert Lai]

From TOS:

Androids were present in "I, Mudd" - though it was never clear who had made them or how new 'series' were produced. It was stated that Mudd had designed several new series (undoubtedly external appearance only, though some cosmetic functions may have been specified). Kirk and crew were able to reprogram Norman and the other androids to function as Harry's jailers.

"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" also contained androids, intimating a neural transfer was possible ... transferring Kirk's consciousness into an android body. This is later echoed in the TNG episode 'The Schizoid Man,' where Ira Graves displaces Data's personality with his own engrams. Later, when Data meets Juliana Tainer, we see that Dr. Soong did just that with his fatally injured wife.

"The Ultimate Computer" turned off Richard Daystrom's 'revolutionary' concept of using human engrams to form the basis of a computer's processor. (Now, in the 1990's and 2000's, the idea of 'neural-net' computers doesn't seem too far fetched.)

The 'nanites' appeared in the episode 'Evolution.' To this day, I hate the term 'nanites' and prefer the classical 'nanomachines' or 'nanobots.'

Despite the melodramatic use of holograms to do labor in a Voyager episode, it overlooked the fact that you'd have to thread the area with holoemitters in the first place, and it wouldn't work in a mine, which is full of protrusions and uneven surfaces. I agree that robots or other machines would likely be utilized -- look at present-day innovations by Honda, who have demonstrated a limited-motion, humanoid robot.

And while Soong may have achieved the greatest success with Data (and Lore), other contemporaries may have built androids with limited functions - either physical or mental. This doesn't mean that another android can't be stronger/smarter than a human, but that it doesn't have the versatility that Data has (i.e., Soong tried to mimic all of human behavior, while other scientists, looking for smaller, measurable successes, made trade-offs in capability for reliability).

Nonetheless, Asimov's Laws would likely be adhered to (I believe there's even a reference to them in a TNG episode).

(Apologies for the data spew.)

Bob

[redwood973]

Originally posted by ghosty
Actually when I started this thread, I was talking about non-sentient labour saving types. Dumb drones that fetch and carry and do routine maintenance in dangerous areas of the ship.

Oh! Yep, Starfleet has these. They are called ensign and/or crewmen.

>Serious Mode Now On<

Didn't one of the Voyager eps. say the first EMH units were doing minor engineering work once the newer units became availiable?

Seems like a very good idea to me. Unable to reproduce the work of Dr. Soong, once holotech was developed it would become a natural alternative for fetch carry (and minor repair work). Granted this type of system, I believe, would only be best suited for starship or starbase duty. You are not going to see this tech in an ore mine.

[Phoenix]

Just what type of robot are you looking for?
A person controlled device (aka Remote, think fork-lift type thing), a device set to a specific set of parameters (aka Automation, an automated car factory), or lastly a device with a broad parameter bases designed to function independently for a longer period of time (aka Probe, we use this one a lot in ST).

There is also the Droid types, the multi-function fully independant thinking device, but this is a little too close to Data (ie C-3PO and R2-D2).

The Exo-Comps started out as Probe-types, but through the power of "it's in the script"-babble, became a functional Droid-type, same with the Nanites, and I'm sure there are a few other examples out there. In one of the other TNG episodes, LaForge was using a Remote-type device to try and locate the crew of another ship (the show where his mother's ship vanished, I forget the name).

[Dan Gurden]

Originally posted by redwood973

Didn't one of the Voyager eps. say the first EMH units were doing minor engineering work once the newer units became availiable?

Seems like a very good idea to me. Unable to reproduce the work of Dr. Soong, once holotech was developed it would become a natural alternative for fetch carry (and minor repair work). Granted this type of system, I believe, would only be best suited for starship or starbase duty. You are not going to see this tech in an ore mine.

Actually it stated that EMH Mark1's were scrubbing plasma ducts. A single line that not only negated the TNG episode Measure of a Man and consigned Data to the ranks of 'Lesser beings'... But also assigns the Federation as slave keepers.

After all, a sentient hologram limited to an area covered by holo-emitters, is still a sentient being imprisoned within the work area.

I was glad that they followed this up with Lifeline and Author, Author, but annoyed that resolution of this erroneous behaviour on the part of the Federation was not explored further. After all, taken to its extreme, ALL EMH units are slaves... Even DS9 did more coverage on this issue with Vic, leaving his holoprogram on...

Note, I am limiting this opinion to Sentient holograms only, not characters in holodecks. Now before we subvert this entire thread into a 'holographic rights' discussion, let us consider that this thread is about Robotics. So in a linking analogy;

In the same way that the matter of Holographic rights needs to be addressed, and it is left to us. The gamers to find resolution. The same can be said of Robots.

Data had legal action taken against him, trying to prove him an inferior being, but he won his rights, as did the Doctor in Author, Author. But both of these situiations were one offs. Surely there is leeway for similar plot involving robots or automatons...

Just food for thought...