The Essential Guide to Droids (Page 26-27)
Protocol: LOM Protocol Droid
[edit]The corporate rivalry between Cybot Galactica and Industrial Automaton is legendary. No case better illustrates their boardroom backstabbing and petty mudslinging than the development of the controversial LOM protocol series.
Cybot Galactica has long been the overwhelming leader in the protocol market, a position that Industrial Automaton wanted to challenge. Realizing they couldn't afford to struggle with Cybot's dominant 3PO model for the all-important human consumer, IA decided instead to get their feet wet by releasing a droid tailored for niche alien species. If sales met or exceeded expectations, IA had plans to produce a human-based protocol series within two years.
Work on the LOM project was swiftly approved and initiated. Mindful of the disaster their competitor had suffered with the Lurrian PD series, IA made sure not to define their buyers too narrowly. Their target market encompassed most insectoid aliens, such as the Brizzit, Verpine, Xi'Dec, and Yam'rii, and the LOM's features were sculpted to look generically 'insectile' to comfortably suit a wide variety of species phenotypes.
If things had stopped there, Cybot Galactica might have ignored the new product. But the LOM was a test bed for a future humanoid droid, and IA was determined to sink the 3PO by offering a comparable model for a better price. Their designers approached parts suppliers such as SyntheTech and, through some crafty deal-making, obtained many identical technical and peripheral components. The net result? From the neck down, the droid could easily be mistaken for a 3PO.
Like its rival, the LOM possessed an AA-1 Verbobrain and a TranLang III communications module packed with millions of galactic languages. Despite the bulbous compound eyes, internal photoreceptor pickups were keyed to the human visual spectrum. The droids were as intelligent and cultured as 3POs, but seemed less jumpy and more prone to passivity and well-mannered altruism.
Cybot Galactica was furious. The use of trademark hardware like the Verbobrain enraged them even more than the obvious cosmetic duplications. Within a day, an army of their best copyright attorneys were on the case.
A snarl of lawsuits followed, forcing IA to put their future protocol plans on hold. The LOM sold well in limited release, but then a second headache arose. The droid 4-LOM, working as a valet aboard the cruise liner Kuari Princess, suddenly became a master thief and one of the galaxy's most lethal bounty hunters. Cybot was quick to point fingers at IA's "shoddy craftsmanship," while IA blamed the Kuari Princess's shipboard computer for causing the mysterious programming glitch. Either way, it was a public-relations fiasco and it effectively buried the LOM series.
Info Boxes
[edit]Front View
[edit]- Servomotor
- VerboBrain Housing
- Vocabulator
- Photoreceptors
- Auditory Sensors
- Microwave Emitter/Sensor
- Olfactory Sensor
- Recharge Coupling
- Powerbus Cables
- Intermotor Actuating Coupling
- Reinforced Knee Joint
Rear View
[edit]- VerboBrain Housing
- Powerbus Cables
- Recharge Coupling
- Intermotor Actuating Coupling
- Reinforced Knee Joint