By Martha
11:30 AM
In the cold, dark room of the scientist's laboratory a teenager, named Lizzie, sneaks into the room. "Hello!" a voice says against the silence of the room. Startled Lizzie jumps backwards knocking into a solid chair. She whirls around to where she heard the voice. She only sees two, little blue lights. The voice cheerfully continued, "Sorry, the last scientist to exit the room probably forgot to keep the lights on. But don't worry I'll turn them on!" The room, while still cold, was then and suddenly lit up. Lizzie looks around again, trying to find some person in the room. "There that's a lot better!" the voice continued triumphantly. Then moving into the open area of the room was a shiny, silver three-foot tall robot comes into view. Lizzie looks at the robot surprised. “Is this where the voice is coming from?” she thought to herself. "Yes I am a robot. Sadly the only things I can do are talk and remember things that have been placed into my circuit from a computer. I have a special and unique ablity. I can talk to other robots!" Lizzie relaxes a little and looked very interested. “Can you tell me about them?” she asked. "About the robots I know?” asked the robot clarifying what Lizzie had just said. Lizzie nodded. “Why sure! I will tell you all the things my robot friends do. Trust me, they all are very different, but they have at least one thing in common. They all help humans accomplish tasks." says the robot. He then gestures for her to sit down. Lizzie seats herself on the chair she had just previously knocked into, but strangely it didn’t knock over.
"I first want you to meet my best robot friend; his name is Mr. Gower." the robot says happily, "He, unlike me, actually has a job! He is like me in the way that he can talk, and he tells me that his favorite things to say is 'Calling Elevator' and 'Your delivery is here'. This isn’t the only thing that he does though. He also carries supplies like medicine, to doctors and nurses when needed. I hear, every day, that Mr. Gower is a huge help because he replaces a job that nurse and other people that work in the hospital used to do. In conclusion, now everyone working at the hospital can do other, more important things. Now isn’t that helpful!”
“Alright,” continued the robot, “Well, which robot I should tell you next?” The robot paused in thought, thinking through all his files till he finally finds one that suits him. “I KNOW!” cries the enthusiastic robot. “I will now tell you my other favorite robot, Gemini-Scout. The Gemini-Scout works underground, in mines. He does multiple stuff like testing the air for gases, finding lost miners with a heat sensor, dragging miners out (if needed), bringing supplies, and finally can be used by a miner as a radio to the search and rescue team. The Gemini-Scout helps miners and saves many lives because of his robotic abilities.”
“Both of the last two robots work hard, but my cousins don’t work as much. Instead my cousin, HRP-4c, can dance and sing! Plus she has a friend in Japan that can actually play the piano with its two robotic arms,” beams the robot. “Once she said she saw a robot that played with kittens while a person controlled the robot at a distance. Then last but certainly not least, there is my other cousin who plays hockey without any human help!” the robot stops and then sighs, “The scientist promise me that I will see him play someday, although they are not sure when.”
“Wow! Look how fast time has flown. The sun is starting to show over the horizon, you should probably g-” But Lizzie cut him off and said in a pleading voice, “No! Please don’t make me go away! All of this is very interesting and today is Friday so I will have to wait a whole weekend till I can hear the rest of the robots that you know.” She was now at the verge of tears. The robot would have smiled if he was a human. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. “Very well, I will tell you the rest that I know,” the robot said cheerfully. Lizzie smiled gratefully, “Thank you.” “This is the last robot that I know. Similarly he is the newest robot, this robot drives cars. It uses radar from all over the car, and detailed maps to navigate. This robot automatically slows down and speeds up depending on the road and vehicles around it. He proudly states that he is the best driver because he never gets tired, never drinks, and never texts. Plus he tells me that he can see things that other humans can’t see. So he has nicknamed himself the Super Driver, and is always very happy when someone calls him that.”
“Well that’s all that I know, but you can come by next week, on Monday I would be glad to tell you about all kinds of things,” told the friendly robot. “Wow, really? That would be great. I’d love to!” Lizzie replied, “Can I be your best human friend?” There was hardly any pause, “I would love to be! In fact I was hoping you would say that!” Lizzie smiles, she then stands and stretches. She happily walks to the door, but then stops in the door way and turns around, “I will certainly be here Monday. You know, for once I will look forward to Monday! Oh! One more thing, don’t forget to tell the scientist to keep the lights on.” "Lizzie?" She turned around. "Now you know a lot about robots," smiled the robot. Then newly made friends both waved and Lizzie pulled the door shut behind her.