Cranial Processing Unit: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Just because you're stupid enough to keep your brain in a vulnerable protrusion doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to design a robot that way."''|'''Kevyn''', ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]''}}

 

In the human body, the entirety of the brain is conveniently located inside the head. In the world of fiction, this often applies to humanoid robots as well. On a certain level, this would seem to be logical; after all, it's been designed to resemble a human being, with all its corresponding external parts in the appropriate places. It's not a big leap to assume the same would be true for the corresponding internal parts.

 

 

However, there are some reasons why you might want to put important functions in the head (for much the same reason that so many terrestrial creatures evolved that way.) Many of the parts related to sensory input, such as visual or auditory receptors, would logically be built into the head for the sake of having a higher vantage point of view; once you've placed those there, you need to place the core processors near them to ensure maximum-speed reaction times to visual stimuli. How important this is and how hard that constraint becomes, of course, depends on how quickly you need your robot to be able to react.

** ''[[Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam|Zeta Gundam]]'''s Rick Dias and the Sazabi from ''[[Chars Counterattack]]'' both featured cockpits in the head unit. And like the Zeong above, Char piloted both models.

** It's deliberately invoked in ''[[Mobile Fighter G Gundam|G Gundam]]'', whose [[A Mech by Any Other Name|Mobile]] [[Motion Capture Mecha|Fighters]] are intentionally designed to shut down when their head is destroyed. This design choice is apparently intended to discourage pilots from aiming for the cockpit of their opponent.

** Deliberately invoked in the logic behind a mobile suit variation in ''Gundam 00''. The Neo-Head is an advanced prototype that is compromised solely of arms, legs and a torso, with all cameras, sensors, and processing units distributed throughout the body or within the centre of the torso. The reasons behind it was that in virtually all cases, a mobile suit having it's head destroyed meant that it was combat inoperable, regardless of the rest of it's operational status.

* Averted by most incarnations of ''Astroboy'', whose CPU is body-centered, contained in a heart-shaped casing inside his chest, making him perfectly capable of functioning with his head knocked off. A little too well, in fact, as Tezuka never did explain how he's able to find his way around without eyes or ears. Maybe one of those wires that's always sticking out of his neck contains a fiberscope?

 

 

* As noted by [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] in his review of ''Strange Adventures'', the robot is capable of thinking without its head on, so it obviously has a brain in its body, but it stupidly lacks any sensory equipment (eyes, pressure detectors...).

* Subverted in ''[[Stormwatch|Stormwatch: Team Achilles]]'' with the thoroughly cybernetically modified villainess Ivana Baiul, who mocks the protagonist for shooting her in the head:

* Averted with Herman von Klempt's cyborg body in ''[[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]]: Conqueror Worm''. Von Klempt has been a head-in-a-jar in every appearance until now, during his battle with Hellboy it turns out that he still is a head-in-a-jar, housed inside an android replica of his original body and still capable of flying around after the body is disabled.

* [[Defied Trope]] in an issue of [[Spider-Man]], in which Dr. Octopus has unleashed several giant robots on New York. Spidey tells the rest of the Avengers to just go for their legs, as their heads are just for show.

* In ''[[Star Wars]]'' Episode 2, C3PO's and a battle droid get their heads switched. They both remain quite functional.

** There may be some secondary processing going on in the body though, as C-3PO doesn't seem to be in control of the body's actions and even seems to temporarily take on aspects of a military droid.

** R2-D2's brain (an "Intellex IV computer", according to the Expanded Universe) is in his head, but his torso is so full of gadgets, gizmos, and dwarf actors that there's nowhere else for it to go.

* This is one of the few things the movie of ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'' had in common with the book. Sonny had a second one, symbolic of a heart, in his chest, but it was implied to augment the one in his head, with no evidence that it could function on its own.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* 'Mech cockpits in ''[[BattleTech]]'' are in the head 99% of the time. But seeing as most of the torso space is taken up by a large fusion reactor, there's not a lot of room to stick a cockpit in there.

* Averted in ''Cyborg Commando'': the cyborg's brain is in the chest, while the head houses various sensors. (And a large amount of empty space, for some reason.)

 

== Videogames ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]