Hotbot

Advanced Hotbot example, Juanita Alvarado

Hotbot is a type of robot from the videogame series Ratchet & Clank.

They are an all-gynoid type of machine; They are all hard exterior Metalic plating robots with exposed joint mechanisms.

They have certain unifying characteristics such as two-digit hands and glowing eyes with no pupils that are either blue or red-yellow hue.

They normally have plating resembling clothing that cannot be removed and a torso segmented in three axial sections. Footwear is also permanently built into the leg design.

The dermis like plating of the Hotbot is always pearl-like with a hue that goes from a fading blue, pale silver to orange gray.

Their facial plate (facemask) can be either a single continuous piece from the forehead to the chin, with plasticity for facial expressions; or it can be rigid with a segmented jaw.

Background

Hotbots belong to the fictitious Solana galaxy where they coexist with numerous types of biological civilizations on an unknown quantity of planets, moons, asteroids and space stations. They are one type of robot among several including robots meant for comedic purposes such as ghost robots. Hotbots appear to be sentient and their purpose seems to recreate feminine roles in society while being visually attractive. Hotbots are apparently programmed with pleasing personalities unless confrontational. Hotbots apparently possess free will and are considered citizens on the larger part of the inhabited worlds with apparent rights and duties. Yet it is implied, rather for comedic purposes, that Hotbots can be mass-produced and be considered property, be rented and sold while also being able to own property, marriage, divorce, and generate income for personal use.

Example of mass-produced civilian Hotbot suffering damage overload.

Help desk girl from Gadgetron corporation, either employer or asset. Was the first Hotbot introduced in the game.

Hotbot behavior is rather social in anthropocentric terms as they never behave robotically using expressions of "self" and refer to their status with biological terms such as "feeling sick or feeling in love". Even mass-produced Hotbots have an individual status such as "Melissa" that was Courtney Gears' best back up dancer despite being indistinguishable from the other back up dancers to the player¹

There is little to no explanation of the inner workings of Hotbots or the specific corporations that build them, but extrapolation with other robots of the game series suggests they are filled with gears, nuts, bolts, minute corridor-like structures full of circuitry, transistor-like structures, artificial hearts, electronic brains and miniature silicon like boards. Canonically artificial beings and continual functioning of technology in the Solana galaxy are the product of "microscopic" organic beings called the Technomites that naturally have the inclination of building and maintaining technology in the opposite way of folkloric Gremlins. Technomites are considered "fairy tales" as no one has ever seen them and are considered an explanation for kids of how technology works ². This might imply that besides fabrication, some robots might be "naturally" occurring in the Ratchet and Clank universe.

Model or term

Hotbot is either a way to refer to the two types of gynoid model described (segmented jaw and full faceplate) or a term to describe attractive robots independently of their characteristics.

The term has not been used on non-gynoid robots, other gynoid robots in the game are identified with other terms such as Valkyries and Infobots. Hotbot is likely both slang and classification for a type of female robots.

Sources

1 * Ratchet & Clank 3 playstation 2, "Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal,2004 ".

2 * Ratchet & Clank 5 Playstation portable, playstation 2, "Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters,2007-2008 ".