Flybot

* See Flybot_Fun
* See Security_Systems
Imagine ... Flying a Security Fly-bot ... BE THE FLYBOT ! :
Move faster than you ever did as a (sort-of) human ( there never was a 'Pigeon Splicer' -- Now THAT would have been scary ... ). Zooming around, making those crazy turns and clipping walls and strafing evil-doers.
Lacking the 'Golden Age' AI brains components (Bio-Electronics & Radio link to a computer controller), the later time's Flybots often required an operator ( remote-controlled for at least tactical decisions ).
Training new AI Circuitry ( New Rapture has got some people working over at McClendon Robotics again ... ) requires a human pilot to fly test scenarios (Alarm response, Obstacle course, Target practice, Sensor scanning, Tactics) -- Which the Player would get to do -- to generate the logic to be incorporated into new Fly-bot devices New Rapture was building/repairing. You get City Brownie Points for this ...
Crazy Flybot HUD - seeing the sensor views which the Fly-bots are limited to - green infrared, edge outlines from the optical processor, various air vehicle type readouts. Sorry no assembly code listings like in the first Terminator Movie, though funny LOLCat-like robotic captions cant be ruled out.
Special quiet 'black' Fly-bots used for stealth missions were rumored ... (Crazy Splicers probably saw giant bats and manta rays flying around too).
Someone at one time thought of using these things to deliver Mail (before the Pneumo put an end to such). The Candy-Gram service may have had similar uses planned.
Cut the rotors down, substitute compressed air and put a warhead in it, and these things might make a halfway good torpedo. Or 'as-is' to use them to popup and attack intruding boats near the Lighthouse ( or similar 'Surface' missions ). The iconic Lighthouse will have all kinds of interesting missions associated with it ...
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Robotics - Flybot Security Bot Systems :
Control with a Computer Electronic unit - sensor interpretor/relay and action control. Early units would have been manual remote control with simple autopilot assistance, later Bio-Electronic advancements made more automatic systems possible. Even then supervision would have been likely.
* Simple Internal Navigation Mapping, spacial recording, obstacle avoidance.
* Sonar Sensors (chirpers/tweeters) distance to surfaces (useful for avoiding walls/dynamic obstructions)
* Optical sensor Low-res TV, infrared - piped back to 'Base' for interpretation
* Optical Sensor Flasher detection (optical friend/foe system - as on-the-fly genetic detection/decoding is a BIT too * sophisticated/bulky)
* Gyroscope Self-Leveling (some models)
* Mercury Switch based tilt self-balancing orientation Sensor (3D automatic leveling)
* Rotor Throttle, Altitude and Tilt acceleration
* Propeller Clutch Throttle - Forward and Axial rotation
* Rotor Tilt control Side 
* Rotor Pitch control Up/Down
* Rudder Turn Axial Rotate
* Propeller Variable Pitch (forward/turn motion tuning)
* Fuel Sensor
* Gun activation/ammo sensor
* Radio signaller ( directives from central controller and alarm alerts )
* TV Feed (some models) allows operator or central computer and activity recordings
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Flybot Computer Control System
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Air blow effects of Security Bots :
It takes quite a bit of power to make a (~150 lb) object hover, and the Security Bots use a down draft flow of air ( via their contra-rotating rotors ) to fly. That airflow will blow all kinds of nearby light Items about, as well as make quite a racket. One more 'physics' effect for the game. Imagine how much dust/trash has accumulated in parts of Rapture to get blown around, and the force of the airflow also can throw up water/mud/muck just as well.
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TV Guided Bombs Used In WW2 (By Both Germans and US) :
Early Rapture Flybot units were remotely controlled by an operator (and even later, the control guidance would have been done for the more 'automatic' versions using a 'land' (Security Office) based computer ( instead of the Impossible task of fitting that much computer 'smarts' into the already crammed-full Flybots ).
When Rapture the Civil War started, many Flybots were soon returned to 'operator' type control, as technical abilities (for maintenance and repairs of the 'Computer' units and radio-link infrastructure) deteriorated.
By New Rapture's time, all kinds of kludged system would be found for the various remaining Security systems (including those employed by various Splicer groups).
Story arc for some German who had been part of such a 'Secret' WW2 TV Guidance project (German "Postal Service" (Real World) got alot of such technical projects, as did the Army Signal Corp for US projects), and he winds up in Rapture after the War ( maybe even escaping the Russians who were scooping up Technical experts just like the US was ).
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The Flybot's Home Base :
Flybot 'smart' controllers for example use a smaller form factor ( 'tube style' packaging - less weight and more compact, with more shock/environment hardening ). Different 'disk' substrate sizings (ie- dimensions 1 inch by 2 inch substrates for standard 'tube style'). Greater use of custom logic programming using Neural Nets (less of the General purpose computer functions). There's alot of quick (realtime) sensor feedback and control tuning processing (instead of being like an adding machine).
The Flybot's tactical computer is actually back at its base, where that complex system is kept safe, and stable, and the Flybot itself is a sensor equipped remote control robot (still with some fancy electronics for fast reflexes/reactions of its controls). Semi-Manual control of Flybots was common to make command decisions about mission targets (like proper identification before non-lethal weaponry was activated, or verbal warnings given first). Systems like this would work in concert with on-foot personnel.
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Apple Crates on Security Bots, Vegetable Can on Grenade Launchers... :
"Security Cameras on the other hand" ??   Maybe instead just have a nice cohesive paint job, but are still largely made from flattened tin cans - They certainly 'get destroyed' easy enuf for that to be true (Its rather conflicting when all the Vending, Newspaper and Bubblegum machines are indestructible ...). 
The MMORPG would offer opportunities to 'cobble together' your own machines (which WONT be 'indestructible').
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Cheap Do-It-Yourself Fly-Bots  - "I Destroyed Hundreds of Them, And They STILL Came !!!" :
pix??? *FIX* diagram   (compare a standard 'original' with later 'flying tincan' Fly-bot)
I've seen/destroyed seemingly endless numbers of Security Fly-Bots so there must be a factory (assembly line) somewhere making new ones and shipping them to us (too bad they are too big to fit in the Pneumo - that would have helped explain so many).
An Idea they SHOULD have had for the original BS2 (maybe in BS1) would be some Fly-Bots looking like they were much more cobbled together.  Made from miscellaneous bits and pieces  (tubes, tin cans, beer bottles, odd bits of pipe and wood, etc ... Enough to make at least 2/3rds of the thing -- one recycled produce-box isn't enough).  Their average life-span was not impressive and seems a waste (maybe the Corpse-Gnomes who replace bodies with Lock-Boxes, also pick up the broken Fly-Bot parts for reuse ?? ... the CRV would be ??)
The complex bits - Engine, Gun, Control unit, would not be so easy to 'cobble together'.  The first two could be pretty crude (an AK-47 has just a few (largely) stamped metal parts... 1947 design, and alternate 'shotgun' array could be just a bunch of tubes, and the 'flying bomb' model -  now that's pretty simple).   The Control 'smarts' could be largely remote controlled.  Requiring only radio + crude TV-imager (some kind of Sea Slug-eye based bio-electronic components) to be inside the Fly-Bot, and a remote 'comp-u-ter'/operator controlling it from a remote base.   For some, an operator might not see all that much anyway with all that smoke put out by a crude mal-tuned engine.   A likely best use of these cobbled late-era Flybots might effectively be to lay down a 'smoke screen' to assist in a hasty 'strategic withdrawal'.  And since they frequently explode/catch fire, even their operators don't usually want to be too near them.
The few fancy (expensive/complex/original) Fly-bots that are left in New Rapture would be saved for special 'security' occasions, and not wasted on routine rat-chasing missions.  Bounties for 'original' spare parts and salvage are commonly offered.   (I could see missions with activities related to maintaining New Rapture's units).
Some simplified 'cheap' versions were designed for Ryan's War on Atlas as disposable assault units.  Others (Factions) copied the designs for their own use.  Reusable components from destroyed units were not uncommon (control units and engines in particular).  
The general crudeness of most of the remaining Fly-Bots means you will hear/see alot of backfires and other indicators of less than optimal operation (you should be able to hear them coming from quite a distance away because of the racket they make).
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DIY Flybots ??
FIX ... Add  Diagram of 'cheap' Fly-Bot with recycled parts  (and descriptions)
"It just has to work, it doesn't have to be pretty"
Running on Moonshine (high proof ethyl alcohol) with some kind of oil added like you do with a lawn mower/chainsaw engine.  Alcohol has about 4/7ths the energy in gasoline so larger amounts are needed to power the engine.  Rapture can easily produce ethanol from agricultural products and petroleum is not produced, there was little choice.
Since many of these 'cheap' units are meant to be less automatic and more 'managed' by an operator, they can lack some of the fancier/complex/sophisticated features of the ones we are familiar with : 
* Self-starting might be a difficulty - old method of using a explosive 'starter' cartridge probably would work (which work only once before needing to be reloaded).  Pull Starter would be likely for manually operated units, along with other manual methods (will need a generic figure animation of human going thru the motions of 'starting' a Fly-bot like one would a Lawn-mower - with a pull cord.)
* Hop-Up Cola/beer glass bottle/cans - as gas tank(s)
* Candy wrapper/paper airfoil skins (probably using fish glue for assembly over wood framework)
* Pipe (like Thuggish Splicer's hunk of water pipe) ... for structural power shaft or rotor driveshaft.
* Rotors made partially of decorative siding/sheet, both metal and wood.
* Gears might be needed, but clever ways around that are possible (and eliminating the contra-rotating blades would help with that).
* Gumball machine armor casing (try shooting those things - they are indestructible).  Actually those should be better used to make less vulnerable camera enclosures, as would the indestructible newspaper machines).
* Paper-Mache molded body components (lightweight and easy to make - and possibilities of strange looking shapes for their psychological impact - flying masks, etc...).
* Lightweight Engine which wont be pretty, but works.  Designed to put out alot of power for a limited duration (like of 10 minutes).
** Tin can/fuel oil Can engine cylinders  (some also made of ceramics)
** Beef-E tin engine block/carburetor
** Corpse Lockbox engine frame
** Weld jobs that are referred to as 'bubblegum' in the real world
* 4x4 Array of shotgun shells in tubes for a weapon - used for point blank (high accuracy not required).
Shells  - Black powder is nasty stuff, rolled cardboard, metal bits and 'igniters' similar to type used on Estes model rockets).  Stepper relay firing sequencer.   Weapon 'ammo block' reloads done at the Fly-bots 'base' or by a handler (if the unit lasts more than one mission...)
* Barstool/chair (metal tube) frame (saw some nice 3-leggers in The Mermaid Lounge)
* Lots of Wood parts - lathing pulled from walls - frequently hand carved to aerodynamics shapes (propellers especially)
* Duct tape and Baling Wire(guy wires) to help hold the contraption together ('Love' doesn't work in Rapture and there isn't much 'chewing gum' to be found there any more).
* Lots of odd mismatched screws/nuts and bolts/fasteners (rusted/charred/dented)
* Control unit + antenna + simple remote sensors (and lantern battery or 3 D-cells, 'Safe' brand) - takes more skill to make this work than anything else - some units might even be 'wire-guided' local control for simplicity (dragged telephone wire, which no doubt catches on things)
* Cheap lightbulbs for spotlight (not that newfangled bio-luminescent stuff) or with limited duration/survival time of such units - a magnesium flare.
* No armor - its too heavy - the units damage pretty easy (maybe screen wire to keep insects out...).  These unit's lower weight helps when they have a sub-optimal kludged-together tincan piston engine.   Even the original units couldn't carry that much 'armor'.
* Some Fly-bots might get a 'paint job' to make them look a little more impressive than a heap of flying rubbish.  Faction colors could be often used.   Their impact may be more psychological rather than as firepower, as memories are awakened of the ones from the 'old days'.
Sorry, no fully automated assembly line - too complicated to make that way (would have been too hard even for 'the Before Time' when incredible things were done every day).   The Work required to fabricate them is still simple enough for 'distracted' Splicer workers and 'outsourcing' manufacture (we should have seen a big degradation in quality in BS2 as by that time new ones weren't being made and Lamb's minions couldn't much maintain/fix the ones that survived her attempts to subjugate other areas of Rapture).
No, you cannot use Vita-Chambers to rebuild/restore destroyed Fly-bots -- That would have explained why we never seemed to run out of them, but it would be stupid -- like making a flying city out of brick buildings.
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==Flying Security Bot==
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Picture - 
Unlike some of the other kludged together security devices (Turrets out of swivel chairs), the Fly-Bots required a bit more deliberate design - supposedly made from boat motors, but that is only a small component of the entire complex mechanism (like 10 X as complicated with many more limitations on how it has to be constructed).
--- Fly-bot Construction ---
Lightweight frame
* Duralumin (aluminum alloy) and fiberglass composite
* This whole machine has to be 'really really' light
Engine :
* Internal combustion piston engine, carburated flat 2 cylindar, 30 HP, aluminum engine block
* Cooling system - air cooled
* Gear case/clutches/transmission to rotors and Steering Prop
* Electrical Generator and Battery
* Self-Starting Motor
* Fuel Tank and Pump - uses 87 octane gasoline, 1 gallon for 20 minutes operation (~7 lb/gal)
Rotors :
* Fiberglass composite (WW2 tech)
* Dual contra-rotating for lift (eliminates single rotor axial rotation issues - no need for tail rotor)
* Steering propeller and rudder
* Hardened rotor tips and lights
Gun :
* Allegedly the gun is a modified Thompson SMG (fires .45 calibre pistol-sized ammo)
* Ammunition feed and box - belt fed (as shown).... normal Thompson SMG is magazine fed, NOT belt fed)
* Alternate weapons - rockets, electro gel, (laser ??)
* 200 round drum magazine probably would have been a simpler ammo arrangement (instead of belt ??fed and fruitbox and no mechanism to handle the spent belt...)
* (ammo is .75ounce/round X 100 = 5.3 lb with light belt)
Lights :
* Spotlights
* Emote Color indicators
* Flash ID signal (for other bots and security systems)
Sound generators - tweeter, warning signals
Sensors :
* Scanners / camera - target identification
** BW Optical image scanner
** Detects Friend ID markers (coded flasher signal tags worn by security personnel) ??? No genetic detector (far too sophisticated ...)
* Gyroscope Compass - stabalization and navigation
* Sound detection & directional unit
* Sonar system - high frequency sound - echo obstacle avoidance
The Brain (control system) :
* Mk-3 Super-Slug Logic Unit (bio-electronic control logic disks)
** Opto-visio-interpretor (interprets scanner/camera inputs)
** Sonar interpretor (delay-distance calculator logic)
** Tactical mapping system - records flypaths/navigation maps
** Terrain reading logic (cognitive 'summator')
** Moving object discernment
** Target lock-on and tracking
** Gunsite trajectory alignment calculator
** Command controller and engagement logic
Radio link :
* External Command/Event direction
** Alert calls from Security Scanner, Alarms, Human issued commands.
* Status reporting (to base, forwarded to Security Control)
* Inter-unit coordination
* TV/Telemetry image transmission for remote control/monitoring
Remote control (Human direction) :
* Fixed station console
** TV camera feedback - limited range transmissions
* Walkie-talkie sized controller, allowing onsite control/guidance
Weight :
50 lb engine+gearing+battery + 30 lb frame/body+structure+rotors + 10 lb gun+feed + 15 lb 200Xammo + 7 lb fuel + 35 lb avionics + misc === ~ 160 lb
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Security Fly-Bot Station Facilities - Security Bot Ready Station :
* Ready Rack docking station (where Bot sits ready waiting), usual complement was 10 Bots
** Auto-refueling and charging, station fuel bunker (converted Jerry-cans)
* Ammunition reload (manual)
** Belt(or better a drum) loader machine and ammunition supply
* Radio Relay & comm line(alarms) dispatcher system
* Local Repair/maintenance workbench/parts bin (manual minor repairs)
* Station security system
** Locking armored doors (ID recognition locks) + Flyways
* Optional station security apparatus (turret covering entry door...)
* Wheelbarrow to go collect derelict Fly-Bots
* Fire Extinguisher to put out fire on burning Fly-Bots (and keep them away from the fuel bunker...)
* Control console for monitoring and manual overrides (with built-in ashtray and cigarette lighter.)
* Backup generator and ventilation system and coffee maker and hotplate
Citizens should be aware that in some faction areas, smarter Splicers have control of the Security Bot stations.
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Automatic Behavior Problems :
* Not safe to use in populated areas (target confusion and friendly fire issues)
* Best used with remote high-level command guidance (permission to 'fire on target' ...)
* Use in 'restricted' and 'off-limits' areas (free fire zones)
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Security Bot Shutdown :
* Not the greatest idea to have them go dead ( better to have them return to station, instead of leaving them inert on ground to be destroyed or hacked ).
* System should have been for security personnel to operate and primary function to activate a Security Bot Alarm ( manually calling Bots to the Vicinity ).
* Would these have had a Plasmid detector, so that they would not be usable by Splicers ???
Activate Like a fire alarm..... Hmmm .... Idea -- Fireman Flybots with fire extinguisher ...
Units are 'trained' by walking them thru their 'beat' to map out flying paths and to locate the various scanners and alarm sources that they are assigned to. The Mk-3 Super-Slug Logic Unit has memory capacity for several dozen patrol locations. The unit also has a 'mode' to auto-map-out a security perimeter area.
Security Bots are used by City Security forces for automatic area security and to bolster personnel-run operations.
Simpler units (Post 'civil war' with no fancy computer) are remote controlled via TV link from a Security Station by an operator.
Spare Parts are available from Minervas Den (Mk-3 Super-Slug Logic Units are in particularly short supply as Subject Sigma apparently shot up one of the few working programming units).
The City has a Bounty offered for working/damaged Fly-bots/parts (many a Splicer hoard has the characteristic 'shiny bits' as a trophy).
MMORPG Players may be able to get private use of Fly-Bots (best used for defensive purposes as the remote control units are difficult to use in unfamiliar territory or where there is significant obstructions and wreckage (like much of 'the wild'). They also often tend to start shooting at anything that moves. Fly-Bot units are not conducive to 'quiet' Team movements.
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Mini-game - Security Fly-Bot FPS... (Carry out your missions and earn your 'wings')
Idea --- contest - Player programmers to program ( script ) Security Bot bio-brains (Mk-3 Super-Slug Logic Unit) to compete for various mission profiles, Within the limitations given of Inputs available Sensors and Functions. Mini_Games interface used for simulator.
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Flybot Replacements :
Considering how many Security Fly-Bots I destroyed playing BS1/BS2 there must've been an assembly line making them somewhere that the City could make use of (was outsourced outside Minervas Den somewhere ??). Probably a number of subcontractors to make the various parts (with a few critical components like the programmed 'Bio Brain' being retained by McClendon Robotics) and final assembly. Even just finding more spare parts would be useful to keep the City's units operating. Jokes about Using Vita-Chambers to repair them were just that 'jokes'. Unfortunately making an engine powerful enuf to lift the machines structure is a formidable task - not just an assembly of old tin cans and some string.
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Some Pictures of Flybots are Wrong :
Having only a single main propeller will have the unit spinning uncontrollably on its up-down axis, as it has nothing substantial to counter/oppose that rotational force of the engine/prop (most simple helicopters have the tail-fan which pushes against the rotation out on a long tail - It is long for leverage). The real Flybot design, preserving its basic shape (as seen), had double lift propellers going in opposite directions to counter each other's rotation force (which many real helicopters do that way).
I've corrected most of the pictures on this website showing One Rotor.
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Advertise This Sucka !!! :
Flybots (originally used as Agricultural machines) pulling advertisement Banners inside (If too slow, could be a balloon/mini-blimp assisted). Fancy lighting effects would be likely.
Submarines out in ocean or "Ocean Bots" doing same thing (brightly lit close to windows - where they might actually be seen). A variety of fixed/moored floating advertisements too.
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NOTE - This could have been where the Security Flybots got their start.
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