Avatar Drones

Avatars (also commonly referred to as "Shells") are general purpose robots created as mechanical imitations the human form, or biomimetic machines. As with many other fields of technology, biomimetics took a revolutionary leap forward following the Two Week War, with the post-war world now full of dismembered persons in need of replacement limbs, disembodied persons in need of replacement corpus, and intangible electronic entities desiring physical forms to interact with the world through. While robotics as a whole has benefited from reverse-engineering of much more advanced alien technology, the particular niche of mimicking the human body through artificial means has progressed greatly from the crude prosthetics of the 20th century. Humanoid robots have become an internationally traded product, and the technology derived from advancements in this market has seen the rise of cyborgs and bionics for both military and recreational use around the world. In the military, “tactical” dolls or shells may be used as OPFOR for infantry combat training or even employed directly in place of human infantry. For recreational purposes, these machines are used for domestic labor and entertainment.
==Overview==
===Skeleton===
The endoskeleton of a shell provides the structural scaffolding for assembly of the entire rest of the body. It is intentionally analogous to the human endoskeleton in form and design. Carbon Fibre is considered the ideal material for this purpose, not only because it is very strong, but because its material density can be adjusted to match that of human bone, resulting in a comparative seven times increase in tensile strength over the real thing with no perceptible difference in weight. Kevlar is considered the next best alternative, with an even higher tensile strength, but is also 24.9% lighter than bone, while Polycarbonate plastic comes in as the economical option at 41.8% lighter than bone but having a tensile strength 72.7% lesser. Lighter materials are usually preferred, but have an adverse effect on the stability of the body. On the other hand, entities piloting humanoid machine bodies are usually very much against using heavier materials that would produce a noticeable difference in overall weight that would otherwise be incongruous with what would be expected of an ordinary human. For shells intended for combat, weight is less of an issue; S Glass or Basalt Fibre are commonly employed for their high affordability and excellent strength characteristics. Less commonly, Aluminum or Titanium alloy will be used, usually to build the endoskeletons for Heavy Assault type shells. Combat-use shells will often have armor plates directly fitted to the endoskeleton, underneath the skin and musculature layers.
===Musculature===
Arachnidium is the gold standard of artificial muscle fibre due to possessing the same density as human muscle fibre. However, it is difficult and expensive to produce, meaning Nylon is commonly employed instead. CNT muscle fibres are rare and expensive but boast the highest performance of all fibre types, granting enough strength to punch with the force of a jackhammer. Although slightly heavier, this is easily offset by the typically lighter skeletal frames these fibre bundles are attached to. Because the shell is designed to match a human as closely as possible, artificial tendons of any type must maintain constant tension in order to balance and move the body with stability, and without a natural self-repair ability, the musculature requires regular servicing and replacement.
===Blood===
A mild-viscosity fluid that serves to lubricate components, cushion impacts and maintain internal temperature, as well as provide an easy way to identify damage to the exterior. This is usually coloured the same as human blood.
===Skin===
Formed primarily from a stretchable silicone with microscopic electrodes, gold nanoparticles and nickel microparticles, this artificial skin passes very well for human skin to the point of being indistinguishable to the naked eye, and even possesses a limited ability to self repair while also relaying tactile and temperature information. When observed under a microscope, the "cells" are visibly hexagonal, and in most cases the exterior "dermis" is still broken up into sections to allow for ease of access and repair of internal components or replacement of severely damaged sections without having to remove the entire exterior. A subdermal layer of Sorbothane provides a realistic feel while insulating the endoskeleton against shock. Lower grade shells will use simple rubber or even solid plastic.
===Eyes===
Biomimetic machines have astute eyesight, on par with but not exactly identical to that of a human's. The differences are minor; the artificial eye can perceive things with much sharper resolution and can detect changes in lighting up to almost three times faster. However, the field of vision of each eye is slightly narrower at 100 degrees compared to the human eye's 150. Artificial eyes are usually constructed from an aluminum oxide membrane studded with 10 million perovskite nanosensors per square centimeter. These nanosensors are connected to a processor via nanowires much like the optical nerve. With a ratio of one nanowire to one nanosensor, the synthetic eyeball is one of the most expensive and difficult components of a shell to manufacture; the only facilities capable of producing them are located in New Zealand. Eyes with up to 500 million nanosensors per square centimeter exist, granting exceptionally high resolution vision. Non-human eye structures can also be replicated, and naturally any color can be chosen for the iris. Strictly speaking a machine only needs one eye to see, meaning one eye will usually have much lower resolution than the other to save in costs, with some shells even having only one functional eye and one light-sensing false eye.
===Power Source===
The battery is the heaviest and largest single component of any humanoid robot. Again omitting manufacturer and buyer preferences, most shells are usually powered by Lithium Iron Phosphate battery packs. LiFePO4 batteries are preferred because of their excellent safety and stability, typically providing a charge of 15 hours of constant moderate activity with a battery lifespan of about 5 years. With a charging station, they can be restored to full charge in 10 hours. Most shells are capable of consuming food and fluids as a human would, but do not gain any nutritional benefit from doing so unless a digester is installed, in which case they are capable of extracting energy from even normally inedible substances such as coal or gasoline. Combat-use shells usually use more powerful but less stable power sources, such as Lithium Ion batteries, which generate more heat and use more volatile components, but also produce more power for longer operations and time between charges.
===Brain===
The Encephalon Module is analogous to the human brain's own prefrontal cortex, in that it effectively retains the entity's "consciousness", as well as being distinctive from other regions of the brain that would be responsible for processing balance, sense, memory and language comprehension, which in a construct would be handled by separate processing components linked to but independent of the EM. This allows for EMs to be installed in a variety of platforms in an almost modular fashion. Although the digital entity's "lucidity" will not be affected, their performance is still limited by onboard processors. Thus, while it is feasible for AI and DI to occupy more simple or primitive platforms, it is considered "unpleasant" due to poorer sensor abilities and lower processing power slowing down or inhibiting thinking ability, to say nothing of physical capabilities, while for DI installation into a too-inhuman platform can become a tortuous experience due to psychoplasticity often causing extreme body dysmorphic disorder.
Roughly the size of a closed fist, an EM is primarily constructed from quartz nanofibres, and weighs about 220.5g. Although relatively fragile, unlike with a human brain, damage to an EM will not permanently affect the entity utilizing it. It is also completely solid and much more impact resistant than grey matter, on top of usually being protected by a carbon fiber shell. The original technology is Vannai in origin, reverse engineered from the very same crystalline processing components used in Suits. Although Quartz itself is a common mineral, the process of rendering it into pure nanothreads is a difficult one, which naturally makes producing EM's out of the material very expensive. An EM suitable for an AI or DI would run for about $530K USD on average, a sum of money that could also buy about 2,650,000 McNuggets. For various reasons, most shells do not have EMs; they are made to order due to the rarity of AI and DI, and due to SI not being complex enough to necessitate them. The majority of shells utilize much less esoteric forms of microprocessors to drive decision-making firmware sufficient enough to enable autonomous action, even on a human battlefield.
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:TE Technology