Combat inhibitor

All robots in Fallout 3 have a combat inhibitor located on their back.



Interaction with Player Character
Destroying a robot's combat inhibitor will cause it to attack every entity with which it comes into contact. This is similar to the frenzy that attacking the giant ant's or fire ant's antennae will cause, though much harder to accomplish since the combat inhibitor is located at the back of the robot's body.

A robot's personality is limited by its combat inhibitor; for example, though Cerberus says that it hates ghouls, its inhibitor prevents it from killing them. A successful speech check via the Robotics Expert perk will remove its inhibitor, causing it to attack everyone in Underworld.