BT-16 perimeter droid

"You seen that new BT-16?''" "''Yeah, some of the other guys were telling me about it. They say it's&hellip; it's quite a thing to see&hellip;"

- KE-829 and his partner aboard the first Death Star

The BT-16 perimeter droid, also known as the VT-16, was a bulbous, spider-like droid manufactured by Arakyd Industries.

Characteristics
The BT-16 came equipped with highly sensitive sensor packages, including a Fabritech seismic reader and a Carbanti motion detector. It was armed with a Taim & Bak repeating blaster cannon. The droid also featured a TranLang I communications module and a vocabulator, though it was only able to speak droid languages.

History
These droids were used by the Galactic Republic and later the Galactic Empire.

Early production runs reused the chassis of the TS-Arach series pest control droid before the six-legged design was introduced. The B'omarr Monks used these droids to carry brains of those who had achieved "enlightenment". The droids were occasionally equipped with vocoders, and lived in Jabba Desilijic Tiure's Palace until his death. The walkers generally went unarmed while carrying a brain, and had trouble doing anything beside walking.

One of the modified B'omarr version, seemingly without a brain, was present on Jib Kopatha's home, Void Station, in 0 ABY.

Behind the scenes
It is revealed in the non-canon story Tag & Bink Are Dead that Tag Greenly and Bink Otauna are the two stormtroopers who mention the BT-16 in the conversation posted above. However, as the story itself is non-canon, so is this information.

In Cynabar's Fantastic Technology: Droids, the picture of the BT-16 is a mirrored version of the TS-Arach series pest control droid image from the same guide. The New Essential Guide to Droids established that early BT-16's reused the TS-Arach body, before the new design seen in the movie was introduced.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Tag & Bink Are Dead
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Star Wars Tales 15 intro