Cerebot

A cerebot was a piece of robot technology, an unclassified probe used aboard Federation starships in the 23rd century.

Background
A cerebot functioned as an avatar of a person, allowing a Starfleet officer to explore conditions which were deadly to human life. Using a piece of equipment known as an electro-prober, the brain patterns of an officer were measured, recorded and transmitted into the cerebot’s memory banks. The process incapacitated the officer for at least several hours, during which time the body needed to be kept in a life support cabinet, and resulting in him having a terrible headache for several days. Meanwhile, the cerebot had all of the officer’s memories and was capable of taking his place on the mission.

The cerebot was humanoid shaped, completely encased in a metal-armor shell, and had a self-contained power source, similar to the video camera robot. It was equipped with visual sensors, a rocket pack, internal sensors, transmitter, and was capable of carrying tracking equipment and portable weapons.

History
Spock and Leonard McCoy employed cerebots in the year 2266 while on the surface of, the uninhabitable fifth planet of system C-71, also known as Ndora. The planet was “bathed in deadly high energy,” and could not be visited in person. The mission was to locate and retrieve the contents of a missile abandoned on the surface by illegal miners, in hopes it would contain evidence to clear James T. Kirk on charges of treason. The two used the cerebot’s rocket packs and scanners to home in on the missile. En route, they encountered a renowned Energy Dragon of Ndora, a creature that McCoy had heard of but never expected to meet. With multiple shots from phasers carried by the cerebots, they were able to subdue the creature, but not before it critically damaged the McCoy cerebot. Spock’s cerebot was able to return to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) with the critical evidence, but also retrieved McCoy’s severed cerebot head.