Original Commentary
Yes, Brisbane's computer is powered by Spare Parts. XD

Modern Commentary
"Spare Parts" is, as mentioned, the comic that Robert's human counterpart is from. And, y'know, my way of letting you know that Robert didn't just buy a thousand dollar computer for his new friends; this is stuff that would've just gone on The Pile otherwise.
"Robert is nervous around women" is one of the things on my list for this story. He ends up being nervous around everybody except Brisbane.

The thing about Robert's personality is, you learn as you go. Carl was the viewpoint character in Spare Parts. He was a hapless guy that Todd and Jeff and Sonia and David happened to. Because you need someone normal caught in the middle of all the chaos to provide a place for the audience to see themselves and to react to the madness that has become normalized. And you need someone that the other characters can explain The Whole Situation to.
The problem with viewpoint characters is that they are, by definition, a little dull. They're meant to be a blank slate that the reader can project themselves on to. If you keep giving them interesting situations to react to, then it's less of an issue, but they are the straight man in the comedy relationship.
The problem with moving a viewpoint character to another strip is that if they're no longer the center of the chaos, then you need to find something else for them to do. They can either become part of the madness that the real straight man reacts to or they can gradually fade into the background. This is something that I had to learn as I went along, which is why it takes a little while to really find Robert's character.
When Avery showed up in Nicole and Derek, she was markedly different than she was in 100% Cat and this is why it had to be that way. Nicole had that viewpoint character slot locked down. - Terrence