Robot, probot

[Outpost4]

Beedeebeedeebeedee...

 

[Wingsley]

Would Starfleet use simple hovering probots, ones that motivate like M4 and Nomad, for basic survey missions in places that may not support human life?

I'm thinking of a planet like Elba II ("Whom Gods Destroy"). Maybe the Federation wants to set up an outpost their to monitor a nearby star or something. I can see Scotty using a remote control to bring in a hover-probot (the one I envision is a small globe with multiple antennae/sensing devices radiating outward in all directions) into the transporter room. Scotty is satisfied the probot is in good working order, and beams it down to the planet. Once there, the probe floats around, surveying everything, until it makes an unexpected discovery...

Would that work?

 

[Timo]

...If that is then followed by a VOY "Extreme Risk" style story where our heroes are newly motivated to find a way to go into that hostile environment themselves, then it could work. But going in there should take some effort, more than just donning standard spacesuits.

If survey drones precede our heroes into an environment where the heroes themselves can easily survive (and "easily" includes the established spacesuits), then our heroes appear too timid. But every once in a while, a drone might survey a truly extreme environment, prompting our heroes to embark on an "amazing voyage" of some sort. Such a story would only work once or twice per season at most, though...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Harry]

It seems that the shipboard scanners usually take the place of old-fashioned robotic probes in Kirk's time. When we see Spock looking into his Viewmaster, he is probing the planet in question with scanners and sensors, at the same time cross referencing his findings in the library computer.

On the other hand, we saw that the Enterprise carried a few hundred (multi-purpose?) satellites, so it probably has robotic probes of some kind hidden in some cargo hold. We just never saw them used.

 

[Christopher]

If survey drones precede our heroes into an environment where the heroes themselves can easily survive (and "easily" includes the established spacesuits), then our heroes appear too timid.

Not timid, just sensible. Stargate does this all the time -- they always send a robot probe through the Stargate to get a look at what's on the other side, see if it's habitable and check for possible threats, before sending people through. And viewers haven't felt the SG teams are less heroic because of it. It's just common sense not to risk people's lives unnecessarily.

Although Harry's right that ship's sensors pretty much take care of the advance-scouting job in Trek. Still, I think that, realistically, probes would be sent into an unknown environment to gather more detailed information before people were risked. The reason they don't do that on the show isn't because they don't want the characters to appear timid, but because stories demand putting the heroes in danger, so sensible precautions that real people would routinely take must be glossed over. This is also why they don't have seatbelts in Starfleet, and why they keep studying potentially destructive alien artifacts three meters away from the warp core rather than in a shuttlecraft safely away from the rest of the ship.

 

[Timo]

Not timid, just sensible. Stargate does this all the time -- they always send a robot probe through the Stargate to get a look at what's on the other side, see if it's habitable and check for possible threats, before sending people through. And viewers haven't felt the SG teams are less heroic because of it. It's just common sense not to risk people's lives unnecessarily.

That would be a difference between 1960s and 1990s television, really. Or 60s and 90s attitudes towards expending military lives, for that matter. Yes, abandoning common sense is a dramatic conceit, but in practice it translates into the other dramatic conceit that heroes have to be heroic. In light of the mandatory foolhardiness that drives the plots, any display of common sense would appear as a character fault best called timidity...

Which is why "companion" robots probably would work fine, while "trailblazer" ones wouldn't.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

Let's establish that Federation Starfleet vessels do use robots and probots at least some of the time, for certain applications. Let's also assume for reasons involving security and the Prime Directive, that Starfleet regulations place tight stipulations on the use of such technology, how it is stored, and how advanced it can be.

Does it seem logical the Starfleet would want such automation technology to have limits, so it...

1: does not become a problem, such as becoming too smart like the M-5

2: does not pose a security risk (in case it is captured by hostiles who seek to misuse it)

3: does not threaten the Prime Directive

4: cannot be misused as a weapon by rogue agents like Capt. Tracey


If we accept this, what would these machines be like? Would they all be hovering boxes and spheres like Flint's M4? Would they be more elaborate, or maybe less, by design?

 

[RAMA]

Here's are a few conceptual questions about TOS and TAS:

We know that robot probes and automated attendants are part of the STAR TREK universe. Witness Flint's hovering M4 security drone, Nomad, and the use of unmanned probes ("The Immunity Syndrome"), etc. Sentient and semi-sentient robots are very much a part of both Federation and alien technology as the voyages of Kirk's Enterprise has shown.

Here are some questions to consider:

1: We never saw the Enterprise crew beam down a robot probe ("probot") to a planet to check it out, either before sending a landing party down, or just to "drop it off" before quickly leaving orbit for another assignment. Does this mean the Federation/Starfleet does not make a practice of depositing probots on planets either in lieu of personnel or ahead of them?

I ask this because "That Which Survives" might have turned out differently if D'Amato had sent a geological probe down first, only for holo-Losira to have destroyed it.

2: In "Operation: Annihilate!", the Enterprise drops a couple hundred powerful satellites into orbit of Deneva. Given that the Enterprise is quite capable of deploying space-based technology aloft of what is obviously a Federation colony, could the Prime Directive be involved in Kirk not sending a probot ashore ahead of his landing party in "Bread and Circuses"?

3: Could security concerns also discourage Federation starships from relying on probots for preliminary surveys of hitherto "strange, new worlds"? In other words, could Starfleet be wary about deploying robot technology that might be captured by hostile parties such as the Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, etc., and either dissected or turned against a starship (booby trapped?) upon retrieval?

4: If technological security isn't a concern, could it be that probots are indeed used (just unseen) but "dumbed down" enough that loosing them to hostile parties would not be a concern?

5: With apologies in advance, looking to other space fiction shows of the 1950's and '60's, would Robbie the Robot or the B9 Robot of "Lost in Space" fit in a STAR TREK story?

In both TOS and STNG they have mentioned "planet surveys" carried out by probes and robots before. In STNG, an experimental probe was used to explore a damaged ship in "Interface".

RAMA