Playing around with CT robot design. Interesting bit: the book describes things requiring chassis/head volume, lays out the volumes for things like the power plant, suspension, transmission, bot brains, and such - but posts no volumes for the components. The in-book example, the cargo bot, does not subtract the volumes of its two components from the chassis/head volume. One concludes that the components are exterior to the bot's shell. Carapace? Shell.
There is logic to that, most items on that list needing some sort of access to the exterior to be useful. Better keeping them outside in the first place. You could presumably add things not on the list, for example a laser communicator. Say I want the bot to have a laser but am trying to keep size down: I give it an ordinary infantry laser rifle in a rifle sling and make it have to use its arms the same way a person would. That way I don't have to worry about power for the rifle and can have a smaller power plant, though I do then need to worry about power packs.
(It also seems logical to equip the robot with a built-in laser but then install a power pack port so the robot doesn't have to draw on its own power for the laser, which isn't mentioned but isn't much of a stretch. One could use a power interface for the power pack. Why in tarnation does a power interface draw power when not in use?)
On the other hand, I've seen the occasional example of robots in which the designer decided to infer a volume from the item mass, using the standard Traveller convention that almost everything under the sun has the same density as water. There can be logic to that pattern as well. If the robot heads off into vacuum or into the water, you wouldn't want some of those items ruined by being in an environment they weren't designed for (assuming of course that the robot itself is sealed, which isn't actually mentioned.) Having the component inside the bot means you don't have to worry about the component failing in a hostile environment. It also keeps you from guessing what components might have been hit and destroyed when some shot that would otherwise hit the robot goes bouncing off its metal flanks.
For those of you who've dealt with the issue: do you assume the component is outside, infer and subtract a volume for the component, or do a little of both depending on what the specific component is?
There is logic to that, most items on that list needing some sort of access to the exterior to be useful. Better keeping them outside in the first place. You could presumably add things not on the list, for example a laser communicator. Say I want the bot to have a laser but am trying to keep size down: I give it an ordinary infantry laser rifle in a rifle sling and make it have to use its arms the same way a person would. That way I don't have to worry about power for the rifle and can have a smaller power plant, though I do then need to worry about power packs.
(It also seems logical to equip the robot with a built-in laser but then install a power pack port so the robot doesn't have to draw on its own power for the laser, which isn't mentioned but isn't much of a stretch. One could use a power interface for the power pack. Why in tarnation does a power interface draw power when not in use?)
On the other hand, I've seen the occasional example of robots in which the designer decided to infer a volume from the item mass, using the standard Traveller convention that almost everything under the sun has the same density as water. There can be logic to that pattern as well. If the robot heads off into vacuum or into the water, you wouldn't want some of those items ruined by being in an environment they weren't designed for (assuming of course that the robot itself is sealed, which isn't actually mentioned.) Having the component inside the bot means you don't have to worry about the component failing in a hostile environment. It also keeps you from guessing what components might have been hit and destroyed when some shot that would otherwise hit the robot goes bouncing off its metal flanks.
For those of you who've dealt with the issue: do you assume the component is outside, infer and subtract a volume for the component, or do a little of both depending on what the specific component is?
