That's not the impression I got from the tone they use.

But anyway, it seems like little quirks like this are pretty common in Fallout 3's robots, the whispered remarks of your robot butler in either house for example "Not that I really want to." after asking how to help the player, for example. Or Cerberus, already mentioned in this thread, it seems that what the personae of Fallout robots want is not always compatible with what they are programed to do, I guess those simulated personalities weren't such a good idea.

Although in the case of Robobrains, it might be a fault of the organic brains they use rather than their programming, even if they were taken from criminals, it still is possible that their brains don't really want to do the things their programming makes them do.

The Sentry Bots and Protectrons and most Mr. Gutsies seem pretty dedicated to their missions though, but Mr. Gutsy and Protectron types have their own quirks, like the Protectrons' tendency to put unnecessary emphasis on certain words, or Mr. Gutsies sounding like an over the top representation of your stereotypical American military type.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/08/rat-robot-vid/

this uses mouse brains, but it doesn't think like a mouse because the brain has been altered
they could have taken the neurons from the brain and wired them together like components in a micro chips then made it into the shape of a brain (to make it seem more human)

this makes sense because it is said that the brain is the processor, and not used for storing memory. The brain bots in the presidential subway become non hostile after a conversation with the computer, so the brains probably don't get to decide anything that happens.

alternately, some of the brain bots may have the brains of soldiers who's body's were destroyed in battle

Herbert "daring" Dashwood posed a similar question in a note in his room.

They were actually brains of convicted criminals, although officially only chimpanzee brains were used.

I think it would be cool if you could have programmed them to work with you, rather than always fighting against you. But they're slow and an easy kill *Confused*

lol i marked cerberus in underworld essential and ...guess the rest