Droids in the Star Wars universe are kind of like siblings. They can be annoying but sometimes they’re helpful, and from time to time they get you in a lot of trouble. While we’re all super familiar with R2-D2 and C-3PO, there are actually countless droids in the universe and they’re categorized in a pretty logical way.
Droids is short for “androids,” but robots work too as a name. In Star Wars, they’re used for a variety of purposes, including doing jobs either considered too menial or too taxing for a human being. Some droids are 100% obedient to their masters, others go rogue either due to faulty programming or general decay.
The more advanced models are powered by artificial intelligence and can make their own decisions and reason their way through situations. The lower-tier droids do not have the ability to form autonomous thought and are generally obedient by nature. In Star Wars, there’s always that delicate balance between making the droid too intelligent, which could cause a rebellion, or too dumb, which would make it not useful.
There are five classes of droids and a number of droids that specialize in more than one type of function, making their classification a bit more complicated.
Class one
Class one droids are droids programmed in the sciences of medicine, physics, mathematics, and physical sciences. They were not really meant to be autonomous and mostly just performed one specific purpose. There are a few different categories of class one droids:
Medical droids
Perhaps the most ubiquitous of the class one droids, medical droids are programmed to treat patients and assist doctors and surgeons with their work. They pretty much only work with medicine.
These droids can scan injuries and ascertain how much medical treatment is necessary. They are emotionally detached and won’t make decisions based on human feelings like loyalty or impatience. They range in sophistication from low (the DD-13) to higher function, like the 2-1B surgical droid — a prohibitively expensive droid.
Biological science droids
These droids exist to analyze flora and fauna on new planets and regions.
Physical science droids
These are like biological droids except instead of life they specialize in knowledge of astronomy, hyperphysics, and trans-dimensional quantum metaphysics, among other important science issues.
Math droids
Mathematics droids are utilized to make billions of calculations in seconds. Some were used as accountants as well.
Class two
Class two droids are meant for the technical sciences and engineering needs. R2-D2 is a class two droid, for example. Instead of speech, these droids were given vocabulators that communicated in binary. There are five different subcategories under the class two umbrella.
Astromech droids
These droids, usually on wheels but sometimes given the clunky ability to walk, are meant to interact with starships. They calculate hyperspace jumps and perform repair and diagnostic functions while in flight. The R2 series of astromech went beyond the regular droid functionality and was useful in almost every scenario.
Exploration droids
Exploration droids can land on a planet and analyze whether the air is breathable and habitable. They’re used to map asteroid fields and potentially discover new hyperspace lanes. A Probe droid is a good example of an exploration droid. They are programmed to gather info and report back, and have a self-destruct mechanism as a defense against capture. They also have a small blaster weapon.
Environmental droids
These droids are pretty self-explanatory: they study the environment around them.
Engineering droids
These droids are instrumental in the fields of engineering. They can specialize in disciplines like aerospace, industrial, and material engineering.
Maintenance droids
Again a fairly straightforward category of droid. The more advanced ones are class two, and the ones that handle more simple repairs are class five.
Class three
These droids are the most advanced in the Star Wars universe. They were created specifically to interact with humans and are, in effect, the most humanoid. There are four subcategories of class three droids.
Protocol droids
These droids were built and programmed with diplomacy in mind, like C-3PO. They are mainly created to serve in diplomatic functions and are well-versed in millions of cultural customs and languages.
Servant droids
These droids are the equivalent of maids, chefs, and personal butlers.
Tutor droids
These droids exist to help students with their schoolwork.
Child care droids
Ranging in quality from oversized toys to actual bodyguards with blasters, these droids are all about childcare.
Class four
The fighting droids! They carry weapons and are trained in armed combat. These were the first droids created, and for good reason. Here are the four subcategories of class four droids.
Assassin droids
Assassin droids exist for the sole purpose of murder. They’re often used by bounty hunters to attempt what could be perceived as suicide missions. These are intelligent droids and sometimes they go rogue, like IG-88 in The Mandalorian.
Security droids
These non-lethal droids guard important buildings or houses and are usually equipped with some type of alarm or non-lethal weapon.
Gladiator droids
These unfortunate droids were programmed for human entertainment. They fight each other to the death for the simple amusement of their carbon-based creators.
Battle droids
These are the most common class four droids. Star Wars fans are especially familiar with the B1 battle droid, which appeared in the prequels and said “roger, roger” a lot. Thousands of battle droids can be assembled in an hour, although many of them just end up being target practice for the enemy.
Class five
Class five droids are the droids that do the tasks no one else wants to do, like garbage disposal or basic construction. There are three subcategories when it comes to these types of droids.
General labor droids
These are straightforward droids that do what they’re told and handle annoying tasks like picking up and transporting things that are prohibitively heavy for organic creatures.
Labor specialist droids
These droids serve one labor-intensive purpose and nothing else. They can’t actually perform any other tasks than the one they were programmed to do.
Hazardous service droids
Hazardous service droids operate in conditions that would be harmful to an organic.
Now, this list, by the way, is by no means an exhaustive list of Star Wars droids. There are several that defy straight categorization and exist in two or more categories. These include the torture, administrative, espionage, and human replica droids, among others.