3 Robotics 101

Chapter Three Robotics 101 The engineers of the Marlowe 280 built all the robots in the robot room. It was a special place, specifically designed for making new mechanical friends. The engineers needed everything to be completely clean to do their work. One stray clump of dirt, and a robot's sensitive electronics could be ruined. Because it needed to stay so clean, it was one of the few rooms on the Marlowe where kids couldn't go without a parent. That's why Elias kept a miniature laboratory in his bedroom. If he couldn't get to the robot room, he'd make a space to explore his ideas. Normally, all the Marlowe robots got their personalities from a book. Once a robot was complete, its owner downloaded a book onto its hard drive. The robot then acted like a character in that book.

Finn's robot, Foggy, came from an adventure book. Genevieve Brooks, one of the older kids, had a robot named Sir Lance-a-bot. Legend had it that a Bilbot Baggins had once roamed the Marlowe's hallways. But Elias thought it would be fun to try a different way. He wanted to make a robot that had its own personality. No books. So he'd hidden a few parts in his room. And slowly but surely he'd built a small robot. It was the size of a skinny gerbil. It would be the skinny gerbil that would change the universe. Everything was perfect. All he had to do was press a button to start it up. Elias took a deep breath and powered it on. And that's when it caught fire.

The fire alarm on the Marlowe was louder than a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. Elias didn't panic, but he did get up and walk out of his bedroom. He stood, waiting, in the living room. He knew the little fire-extinguishing robots were on their way. They looked like ketchup bottles on wheels. They would roll into his room, raise their tiny hoses, and shoot foam at the fire. And then he would have to explain to his parents why he'd built a secret robot. But for now, all he had to do was wait. He just had to wait for

the itty-bitty, teeny-tiny robots to roll in. Just wait and— "OUT OF THE WAY, EVERYONE. I AM HERE. I AM SAVING THE DAY. THANK ME!" A massive, shiny robot burst into the living room and past Elias, rushing to his bedroom. It looked down at the fire. Elias waited for it to shoot foam out of its hose, but nothing happened. The robot looked at Elias, then looked at the gerbil robot flaming at the foot of his bed. "Well, aren't you going to put it out?" shouted Elias. "SURE AM!" shouted the tall robot. It looked around the room. "Do you have any foam?" said Elias. "NOPE!" said the robot. "NO PROBLEM!" And the tall, strange robot picked up its right foot and stomped on Elias's gerbilbot. "FIXED!" shouted the robot, and it turned to leave. "I FIXED IT. I'M AWESOME." "That was not awesome!" said Elias. "That was... that was... that was my robot!

Just then, Elias's parents and a handful of other engineers raced into his compartment. "Elias, what happened? Are you okay?!" said his mother. She waved away the smoke and gave him a hug. "Yeah," he said. "I tried to build a robot, and it caught fire. That chucklehead stepped on it." He pointed at the tall robot. "Who is that?" "That's Voltronix Zu!" said his mother. "Our newest invention."

"He seems kind of...," Elias trailed off. He paused for a moment and tried to think of the right word. He looked at the tall robot. It was now literally patting itself on the back. "Dumb?" "Oh, he just has a few kinks to work out," said his dad. "He's the first robot we made with its own brain. No books!" Elias was shocked. That's what he had been working on. "How?" asked Elias. "No. You didn't. I did. What? No. How?" He was stuck in a loop. Elias's dad looked down at the remains of the robot. He laughed. "You know, son, you're supposed to build something, not destroy it." He gave Elias a hug to show that he was just kidding. "What is this pile of smoking metal, anyway?" asked his dad. "Nothing," he said. "Just a dumb idea I had."