4Game

I had a thought caused from a discussion in a different thread about how the docking computers work. So here is my theory. So first off AGI is prohibited in ED So it's not an advanced ai system. Secondly based on audio cues in game it seems to be a control transfer to whatever station or ship you are attempting to land on. In a way this makes sense if computers generate heat then it makes sense to relegate computationally heavy tasks to larger bodies like stations.

This leaves the question why does the docking and Adv. Docking computer take up so much space. Well this could be explained as the need for space for sensors and telemetry package necessary for automated docking similar to modern GPS. So every edge point of your ship and several points along the hull are lined with pinging sensors that send out a GPS like ping to nearby stations and other vessals during docking procedures as well as receiving those signals. This telemetry data is passed through the docking computer collated and passed to the Docking control on the station. The station also has a similar GPS sensor net along the body of the station to allow for proper alignment.

So a ship approaches and requests docking and hands over ship control to the station and immediately the ships sensor net starts pinging out and detecting the pings of all near by auto docking ships as well as the station all of these pings are stamped with UTC telemetry data to allow for timing and spacing between the ship and all other detected objects. The station then feeds flight instructions to the docking computer to guide it in for a landing. All of this happens as a coordinated dance between your ships and the station. I'm universe this is automating your ships thruster control balance, power plant use, Flight vectoring and heat outputs automatically. Which you ship already does but would likely in universe take an immense amount of computing power to keep balanced at all times. We also don't entirely know how modules are slotted into ships and only have the images given which do not give a scale to compare to unless they are outside the ship such as hard points. The docking computer image looks similar to flight recorder system. The space requirement could realistically be related to the increased sensors and telemetry package needed to coordinate landings.

Finally the reason an advanced docking computer is needed for egress from a station is because unlike landings which have a fixed point on the station egress is leaving to a non fixed point in space outside the station.

Anyway this is just my take on it because I'm bored and wanted to think about it.