RobCo Facility

The RobCo Facility is a factory owned by RobCo Industries. It is located slightly northeast of Tenpenny Tower and south west of Fort Independence. The many protectrons scattered across the D.C. area were once manufactured here.

Background
Tinker Joe can be found in the parking lot outside the facility along with his robots, including potential NPC companion Sergeant RL-3. The parking lot is also a random encounter location.

Inhabitants include mole rats, radroaches and protectrons. There are a number of unused protectrons which remain in their charging stations and several Nuka-Cola vending machines on the various levels.

After you install the Mainframe Processor, you have the option to reconfigure the Mainframe to stop all the protectrons in the facility from attacking you, as long as you have at least 50 Science Skill.

Once you hack the mainframe, you will have a few options:
 * Basic Operation: * Error*
 * Pest Extermination: Kill radroaches and mole rats
 * Total Liquidation: on/off attack humans
 * Stress Testing: Causes robots and turrets to attack each other. This is applied to on top of any other command (i.e. if you did not turn off liquidation, robots will still attack you) However, turrets will be hostile regardless of other settings. (Turrets remain non-hostile as long as the "Total Liquidation" function has been ceased-XBOX360)

Notable loot

 * Lying, Congressional Style - Factory floor, on reception desk at the back of the foyer where you enter. There is a pre-War book on the bookshelf behind this desk.
 * Big Books of Science - Factory floor, by the protectron Pod area to NE, on console. There is a pre-War book nearby.
 * Nikola Tesla and You - After entering Offices and Cafeteria from the RobCo factory floor, go right, head straight (past the washrooms) and look on the desk in the third cubicle on the right.
 * D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine - Offices and Cafeteria first floor, southernmost room, left before the stairs going up. On a desk in the most north west cubicle, next to a jet and a first aid box, a Stealth Boy is also in this on the desk in the middle of the room next to the protectron Pod.
 * 3 pre-War books - One on the shelves behind the reception desk (may fall behind the shelves), one around the computers in the control room (near the Big Book of Science), and one in the mainframe room.
 * 4 Stealth Boys - 1 on a desk in an office cubicle in the room at the back where the D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine is, 1 in the mainframe room, 1 on a bookshelf in the room where Nikola Tesla and You is found, 1 found in a cubicle left of the entrance in the northwestern most room of the Factory Floor (from the entrance straight past the reception desk through the door to its left, make a left at the door to the western most wall and go to the right into the supply closet, and it will be on the shelf* alternatively it can be in the cubicle to the left when entering the room past the reception desk, it will be on top of the desk next to minor loot.)

Related quest

 * The Wasteland Survival Guide

Behind the scenes

 * One of the notes on the computer ends with "the infection has been removed...the soul of this machine has improved." and is signed B. Bell. This is in reference to the song "Archetype" by Fear Factory, whose lead singer is Burton C. Bell and the chorus of the song contains the lyric "the infection has been removed, the soul of this machine has improved".

Appearances
RobCo Facility appears only in Fallout 3

Bugs

 * All Protectrons destroyed inside the area with the mainframe can be looted twice, once the first time you enter the area, and when you have attached the device to the mainframe all protectrons can be looted again. (this does not count for the protectrons on the factory floor)
 * There are numerous "Garage Doors" you can open (look like Food Dispensers, but bigger), but nothing actually happens. They register as open and closed, and can be activated to toggle between the two - but there is no accompanying animation, sound, or passage to go through. With some tricky jumping, the ones on the walls can do the same.
 * The mainframe processor can be activated and hacked from behind. This will keep you hidden from the robot that activates in the mainframe room.
 * If, for some reason you decided to hit some of the deactivated protectrons while you were looting them, causing their corpse to gib, when you reactivate them their parts will try to ineffectively join back to them resulting in strange one legged or headless protectrons roaming the halls. This has no effect on game play and the bulk of the protectrons move normally despite the lack of a walk animation. This also has the problem of their arms being stuck in the roof so they are unable to shoot their target.
 * Immediately after entering the door to the cafeteria area from the factory floor, you'll notice, in the pod to the left, that the protectron's arms slowly move down to its sides, even though it's supposed to be deactivated.
 * Many of the radroaches tend to get stuck in the walls and the piles of waste on the ground
 * The game may crash when selecting the "Stress Testing" option in the mainframe computer. Be sure to save the game before using the mainframe.
 * On the 2nd floor of the cafeteria level, if you go left once you go up the stairs there is a small room with a locked footlocker in it. At the back of the room is a set of fallen shelves and a metal box. It is possible to get stuck if you jump over the shelves to reach the box.