The Essential Guide to Droids (Page 42-43)
Household Service: U2C1 Housekeeping Droid
[edit]The U2C1 housekeeping droid is a cheap but efficient model popular with hotel managers and janitorial services. Despite its vaguely sinister appearance, the droid is a common enough sight that it attracts scant notice, a trait that has been exploited by an increasing number of thieves and gangsters.
Manufactured by Publictechnic, the U2C1 was designed from the drawing board for commercial, not consumer, applications. As a result, attractive styling and pleasant personality programming were jettisoned in favor of simple utilitarian functionality. This helped keep costs down and allowed Publictechnic to maintain a decent profit margin while selling the droids as discounted 'fleet sales' to medium-sized businesses.
Each U2C1 has a flimsy bare‐bones humanoid frame cast from hardened blue plastic. Its hunched‐over head contains an optical slot, audio sensors, and a vocabulator capable of speaking Basic. All the behavioral and performance circuitry is contained in the head and neck; the droid's torso consists of an internal waste‐storage bin. Debris is expelled from the bin via a hinged ventral discharge hatch.
Both arms are made of black flex‐tubing and are used as powerful vacuum sweepers. The right arm features a vacuum attachment for cleaning upholstery, while the left contains a stiff wire brush for removing persistent stains. Most U2C1s work as robotic maids and janitors and perform the same duties night after night. They require little direct supervision.
Until recent years, Publictechnic's problems with the U2C1 were minimal. The droids' external parts snapped off easily, but replacement units were dirt cheap and serious user complaints were rare. Unfortunately, some enterprising criminal minds soon discovered that Publictechnic's housekeeping software was very easy to subvert. In one subsequent instance, a U2C1 was programmed to enter hotel rooms and suck up jewelry and credit vouchers. In another, a droid vacuumed a timer bomb into its belly and exploded outside the office of a Corporate Sector executive as it passed by on its way to buff the lobby floor.
Lady Valarian, the Whipid crime boss on Tatooine, used a U2C1 to keep tabs on her chief rival Jabba the Hutt. The little droid acted as spy, informant, and courier, using its status as the Hutt's palace housekeeper to deliver covert messages, while using the noise of its vacuum arms to prevent others from listening in. The U2C1 passed secret information to the Whipid hunter J'Quille, among others, but the droid's fate following Jabba's death is unknown.
Info Boxes
[edit]Front View
[edit]- Audio Sensors
- Optical Slot
- Vocabulator
- Waste‐storage Bin
- Discharge Hatch
- Wire Brush
- Upholstery Attachment
Side View
[edit]- Pelvic Servomotor
- Internal Performance Hardware
- Flex‐tube Sweeper Arms
- Plastic Frame