Watchtower Industries P-665 Paladin

The P-665 Paladin is one of the most famous post-war combat robot designs. The third in Watchtower's line of combat automatons, the Paladin was one of the most affordable units on the market. Easy to program, simple to upgrade and possessed of human-like capabilities, it was used in a great variety of roles such as patrol, supporting human elements, police duties or colonial defence. Widely used by Watchtower's associated PMC forces and numerous buyers on the frontier.

History
The precursor to the Paladin, the Knight, entered development in late 2495. As the colonies began to become increasingly dangerous, Watchtower, at that time much smaller and geared towards defence solutions, began to design the Knight to aid colonial police forces. Simplistic and cumbersome, it was designed for street patrol, intended to prevent hostile attacks. While well armoured, it was too slow to pursue targets and too unintelligent to be effective. Instead used as stationary guards, they sold in limited numbers, but warranted a follow up model.

The Errant was the second generation, designed to replace the Knight. In an attempt to make it more effective, the armour was lightened and its size reduced so it was closer to human dimensions. However, its CPU was still too crude to be of effect, and was only useful for patrol of perimeters, ideal for defending compounds, checkpoints or corporate buildings.

The Paladin itself began as a new generation unit, buoyed by advances in robotics and automation. Initial work began in 2549, intended to be marketed to the UNSC as an inexpensive and expendable soldier. Due to cutbacks and design issues, it wouldn't enter prototyping until 2558. At this point, the UNSC and major corporations had begun investing in automated combat robots too, putting competing products on the market with the Paladin. When the Paladin did enter production, its main advantages were it was both reliable and inexpensive, though lacking in sophistication. Initially used by or sold to Watchtower associated PMCs, other mercenary groups, corporations and colonial militia, the UNSC turned down autonomous platforms like this, preferring flesh and blood soldiers or heavily armoured drones. The Paladin however proved to be hugely popular, even being purchased by cash strapped insurrectionists.

Design
The Paladin was built with many inexpensive and off the shelf component that were designed for reliability, not performance. Paladin was also designed to be easily upgraded using Watchtower or third party components, and easily programmed to specific stimuli.

Sensors
For sensors, the Paladin was outfitted with two electro-optical sensors. These are positioned on each side of the triangular head and give a wide field of view, in a similar set up to 'prey' animals of Earth, such as deer. These allow the Paladin to have excellent all round vision and the ability to locate targets to the front or each side of it. These sensors are behind reinforced transparent plastic, resistant to glancing blows, but are vulnerable to flares and flashbang-type devices. They have an effective range for sighting and identifying a target out to 300 metres.

For close ranged acquisition it is fitted with a short range, single-phase motion detector, using ultrasonic waves to detect targets. This is useful for tracking targets in dense terrain, but gives limited information on these.

For defence against terrorist attack or searching for explosive devices, they are equipped with a ARGUS sensor, allowing them to 'sniff' out explosives or other unusual chemical scents.

CPU and Electronics
The central CPU of the Paladin is contained inside the 'head', though secondary systems are mounted in the torso. This CPU uses a modern Liquid State Computer that has been ruggedized. Fitted with an advanced neural net that possesses a degree of problem solving and learning capabilities, this CPU can perform advanced tactics and actions. Fitted with visual recognition technology, they can identify whether a target is armed or not, if they are friendly and can even compare them to a list of known targets or enemies, and then choose appropriate action. They can also navigate difficult terrain, climbing structures or picking the most efficient path. In addition to this, they can also share data among one another, creating a gestalt sensor net.

For radio communication, it possesses a mid-ranged antennae on the right side of its head. Capable of sending and receiving vocal messages, these can be used to report to the human operators, or receive vocal commands to issue orders. It also functions as a device for interrogating Identify Friend/Foe (IFF) transponders. This antennae can be used as a wireless device as well, uploading or downloading data, or connecting to the extranet. It is fitted with a speaker allowing it to produce verbal speech, usually a collection of standardised messages to communicate with humans in proximity, whether friend or foe. It can also be set to autistic mode where it relies entirely on recognised vocal commands from human operators within proximity.

It has other electronic packages, such as advanced gyroscopic sensors to maintain balance, weight distribution systems, pressure sensors, microsensors to report damage or maintenance issues and temperature sensitive heat regulation systems.

For transferring data, it is fitted with two hardline parts, one on the back of its head, the other on its left hand, usually reserved for interacting with electronics in the field.

Armour
The base frame of the robot is made of hollow tubes of high strength titanium. Resistant to immense shocks and gunfire, this chassis provides adequate strength for the built on actuators. Over the actuators themselves it has an external plating made up of titanium and titanium alluminide. On the torso, thighs and head this is reinforced by boron carbide tile inserts. Its armour can further be reinforced by equipping it with plate carrying vests, being fabric vests carrying plates of boron carbide. It's combined armour is resistant to several repeated blows from 7.62mm calibre rifles, even those firing armour piercing munitions, but is susceptible to high calibre weapons, and has numerous weakpoints such as the neck and joints.

Weaponry
While possessed of decent strength, being almost 50% strong than a human, it has two integrated weapons. In its left arm it carries a short ranged laser, firing electrically charged darts to neutralise threats, with an internal magazine of 10 darts, and an electronically charged baton, capable of breaking bones and knocking out a target with impunity.

For combat it is generally issued with a firearm of some description, such as assault rifles, pistols, grenades or even heavy ordnance. Most weapons are preprogrammed into it (Though Watchtower insists on using their line of firearms for it), allowing it to fight as any soldier. It has sufficient programming to be able to operate and reload the weapon efficiently, deploy explosives or even switch to a sidearm.

Powerplant and Motor Systems
It is powered by a hydrogen battery planted in its chest. This high-energy battery can be recharged by plugging the Paladin into a socket, or replaced entirely, and has sufficient power to keep it operating for upwards of 40 hours. Buried deep in its chest, it is difficult to hit, but reacts badly to explosive, thermite or plasma munitions, explode violently and vaporising the robot.

The motor system consists of a series of electronic actuators, capable of impressive feats of strength and speed. By no means advanced, they are tough and reliable, and it is usually fitted with enough to give it redundancies in the event of a fire fight. These are backed up by magnetodynamic ball bearings and low profile joints to provide it with a huge range of motions, almost mirroring those of a human.