Medical robot

WHAM · Fri 27/03/2009 12:45:56

Hi all!

I'm designing a character for my next game, and I thought I should ask for some ideas.

the character is a medical robot, commonly found on a spaceship / space station in the late 3300's. It's main task is to assist in surgery (assess and monitor the patient's status and use its precision lasers and other apparel to assist in the actual operating), assess and treat injuries and act as a lab assistant (draw blood samples and analyze them).

What do you think this kind of machine should look like? Should I go for a human-like look that is designed to calm the patient, or a crude mechanoid that is purely built to do a job and not look pretty at all? How do you think this kind of machine should work?

Nacho · Fri 27/03/2009 12:52:34

Deppends of what you are looking for! Realism or bare story telling? Because if you go for realism, a simply box with arms in a trolley should work... If you want to tell a story, and focus more in thinking as an artist than into realism, do it antropomorphic...

WHAM · Fri 27/03/2009 13:06:24

I'm kinda hoping to create a talking bot with an A.I. that would have its own role in the story of the game. I'm also thinking maybe it could be suspended from the ceiling on some kind of rail so it could move in certain areas of certain rooms (ER, OR, recovery etc). I'll get a crude image out in a few hours (when I get home from work so I can upload the image).

DoorKnobHandle · Fri 27/03/2009 14:32:30

The star wars medical robot:

Forgot its name/class but google it and wiser you will be. May the force be with you.

WHAM · Fri 27/03/2009 15:13:41

Quote from: dkh on Fri 27/03/2009 14:32:30
The star wars medical robot:
Forgot its name/class but google it and wiser you will be. May the force be with you.

I wonder what the fuction of the tube coming from its face is?

SpacePaw · Fri 27/03/2009 15:46:12

The rail on the ceiling is a great idea! you could make it human like torso with head, arms clipped to the railings and instead of legs, precision lasers, scalpel knives, forceps and stuff (looking like spider legs, but more of them!)

Nacho · Fri 27/03/2009 16:35:01

DKH, it' s a T-1-b.

Space, if he must interact with pacients, and give diagnoses via talking with them, it should be logic to give it some kind of antropomorphology, it should give more confidence to the patient. Maybe that ceiling rail idea with a screen down, showing a nice looking humanoid doctor? Like Viki (Or whatever was called) in "I robot".

markbilly · Fri 27/03/2009 17:04:44

Quote from: WHAM on Fri 27/03/2009 15:13:41
I wonder what the fuction of the tube coming from its face is?

Artistic effect!

Same goes for the old fashioned microphone that they've used as its 'mouth'...

To be honest, I wouldn't go for something like this Star Wars one, whoever thought that was a good way of calming patients, well...

Anthropomorphic, definitely, even if it's just a torso hanging from a ceiling. You don't want it looking visibly metallic either, maybe go for a semi-transparent plastic over a frame as 'skin'. A bit like the standard robots in I, Robot.

WHAM · Fri 27/03/2009 17:11:08

Drat! I forgot the pic I sketched to work! I'll get it up on saturday instead...

In the sketch I mage, the robot had only shoulders and the head, with elongated telescopic "arms" with precision tools at the tips. It also had this mechanical "tentacle" in place of its spine, which it could move around and use to hold items (in the image I made, it was holding a metallic tray so that the human doctor participating in the operation could place his/her scalpels and such on a surface that is always available.

It sounds like most people are preferring the humanoid form, leaving only the question: "How human?"

EDIT:

A quickie version... And posting this just made me realize I should've put this up in the critics lounge rather than here...

SpacePaw · Fri 27/03/2009 18:59:15

not really

You asked about IDEA not aout critic of your work

Renal Shutdown · Fri 27/03/2009 20:57:32

(Pics courtesy of City of Heroes).

Personally, I'd opt for a bed with an arm above, and a screen. It's the future, why must robot's resemble humanoids at all? Chances are 99% of stuff would be robotic, so people wouldn't necessarily need an anthropomorph to be at ease, as they're likely to have sentient toasters. Efficiency comes before familiarity.

SpacePaw · Fri 27/03/2009 21:25:16

Quote from: Renal Shutdown on Fri 27/03/2009 20:57:32
Personally, I'd opt for a bed with an arm above, and a screen. It's the future, why must robot's resemble humanoids at all? Chances are 99% of stuff would be robotic, so people wouldn't necessarily need an anthropomorph to be at ease, as they're likely to have sentient toasters. Efficiency comes before familiarity.

It depends on the mood of the game. Ever watched Edward Scissorhands? This sciencist who made him had a cookie factory with all machinery looking human-like. That was creepy but I guess that many talented people have tendency to do wierd things like that. So why not? I don't see anything bad in human resemblance as far as it's not C3PO like humanoid

. But something RESEMBLING humans a bit is creepy and moody :3 Can work well with a darkish game

veryweirdguy · Fri 27/03/2009 22:06:52

MEDIBOT.

WHAM · Sat 28/03/2009 08:01:28

Renal's pics have some potential. A little from picture A and a little from picture B, add some spices and mix well.