Lucia the Robot Snake

This post showcases the concept arts of Lucia the Robot Snake. This set of pictures are the early concepts of Electric Hearts.

Lucia is a huge robot snake. There are tracks under her body that allows her to move on the snowfield. She can carry passengers and containers on her back. She delivers people and supplies to the stations on snowfield.

Lucia’s head can rotate around with ease. Her fangs are lifting hooks. She can load and unload 1-unit containers on her own. Her tongue is a socket wrench with swappable tool bits and welding gun. She can carry out self-maintenance to some extent.

Lucia has a multisection body. Each section has a set of 2 tracks that can move in its own direction and speed. This gives her strong off-road ability to run across seemingly impossible terrains. Although there is no limit of how many body sections Lucia can have, but only a limited number of body sections were manufactured.

Lucia can choose from a few different power source units when she is out in the snowfield:

1U Atomic Battery – Each requires 1 payload space, Lucia would typically carry 2 to 3 units. Provides enough power for a 12 sections body configuration to traverse the snowfield for 4 hours under moderate load, every day. Endurance drops as power distributed to passengers and equipments.

2U Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator – Each requires 2 payload space. Provides enough power for a 12 sections body configuration to traverse the snowfield for unlimited time under moderate load. Can also distribute more power to passengers and equipments.

3U Portable Nuclear Reactor – Each requires 3 payload space. Unlimited power supply. Typically used when Lucia works as an exploration team’s main power supply. Lucia dislikes the 3U reactor unit because of it make her clumsy on the snowfield – it locks up 3 sections of her body, and it is very heavy and wide. It often gets in the way of things, and the extra weight makes her more susceptible to fall into hidden snow pits.

The name “Lucia Scarlet” was initially used on one of my dolphin character – she was the mascot candidate I submitted to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Game mascot contest. Over the years, I found the idea of a dolphin character not very interesting except for being cute. The first name “Scarlet” in Chinese means “Red Ribbon”. So I decided to give the name to a red robot snake instead. I think Lucia as a snake has more potential to be an interesting character.