R. Daneel Olivaw - Relationship With Elijah Baley

Relationship With Elijah Baley

Olivaw is introduced in the book The Caves of Steel where he is tasked to assist Elijah Baley in the investigation of the murder of his creator, Roj Nemennuh Sarton. The book shows Earth's prejudice against robots, explaining why a humanoid robot was assigned on the case.

Baley met Olivaw again in The Naked Sun, where he is sent to the Spacer planet Solaria to investigate the murder of Rikainne Delmarre, the husband of Gladia Delmarre. The Solarians are not informed of Olivaw's robotic nature, as an Auroran show of superiority in the creation of robots. It is shown that Olivaw learns from Baley's methods of investigation in both books, which leads to him playing a larger role in the Naked Sun.

Olivaw also solves a case with Baley in Asimov's short story "Mirror Image."

Baley and Olivaw's last case together is one on Aurora, in The Robots of Dawn, where the victim of the murder is a humanoid robot, Jander, who is physically an exact likeness of R. Daneel Olivaw. The victim, Jander, was regarded by Gladia Delmarre as her husband due to their publicly unknown sexual relationship.

Baley's and Olivaw's friendship grows with each novel, thus leading to Olivaw being the only robot to ever set foot on a Settler world when Elijah Baley specifically asks to see him on his deathbed. Baley sends Olivaw away immediately before dying, as witnessing his death would harm Olivaw due to the First Law of Robotics. Baley's words to reassure Olivaw about his death, explaining to him that he is a "mere thread in the vast tapestry of humanity" assists Olivaw in developing the Zeroth Law of Robotics.