“We won’t have time to fix Ada and make the improvements,” 10 said, through her tears.
“We can. We really can! We’re a team. Dalk may have resources and deep pockets, but he doesn’t want it more than us and he doesn’t have a team who cares like us,” I said.
I looked into Li’s eyes and nodded firmly. Then I sat down with 10, who was looking at Ada with despair.
I know how you feel, 10. We’ve hurt our friend by not doing a good enough job.
“We owe it to Ada. We have to persist. We have to finish what we started. Let’s look after Ada,” I said.
10 nodded.
I sat back, breathing fast, not at all sure how we would overcome this challenge but knowing that we must.
T-Minus Eight
Dalk sat on a very large, black leather lounge chair, in a very large office, with his very large father looking out the very large windows. His father, Jax, sipped coffee from a Jax Robotics coffee cup and feverishly flicked between two mobile phones and three laptops. The office was a long rectangle with a door at one short end. When you entered, you took a long walk past a small table with an odd black sculpture on it to Jax’s desk and very tall chair. The walls reflected the room on their surface of rough, matte steel.
Dalk looked down at his tablet screen, which showed a black and white image of AZ, Li, and 10 sitting on the ground with a broken but otherwise very impressive robot. The image zoomed in on AZ’s face. There was no audio, but it looked like she had just given a speech. Her body language was trying very hard to say, “I’m not giving up.”
But you should, Aye Zed, you should just give up. Please.
Dalk lowered the tablet, cracked his knuckles, and tried yet again to get his father’s attention.
“I checked up on AZ. The robot is the best I’ve seen but it buzzed out with a waterproofing test. So it has some major issues. It may not be ready in time,” Dalk said, then waited a minute for a reply but got nothing from his father but the soft tap tap of his fingers on his phones.
“She is working with two other school friends. The loser I’ve beaten for three years in a row and the oddest student in our whole school,” Dalk said, again, into silence. “Oh, and some woman with silver hair is helping her too.”
“What?” Jax’s reply came, short and sharp.
“There was an older lady there with the three of them. She was—”
“Older lady? Who? Where? Show me a photo!” Jax put his phones in separate breast pockets of his black suit jacket.
“Um, just an old lady, um, I don’t know, I’ve never seen her before.” Dalk fumbled for his tablet and held it out.
Jax snatched it from him, manipulated it furiously, and then froze.
“Lu…cia… Ma…cha…do,” Jax said.
Dalk edged back on the lounge chair. He knew what was coming.
“Lucia Machado! LUCIA MACHADO!” Jax, now yelling, dropped the tablet on the ground. “You fool. Do your research. Don’t assume. She’s a threat. A real one. She’s got experience and money. She’s bankrolling them. She’s trying to get me. She’s trying to stop me. Somehow, she must know my plans. You simply must not lose. Fix this!”
Jax then turned his attention to the computer displays on his desk, typing and muttering.
Dalk got up, smoothed his clothes, and fixed his hair. He looked to his father, his mouth open, about to ask something. His father didn’t look at him. Dalk picked up his tablet and walked out with the tap tap tap of his father’s keyboard echoing behind him.
T-Minus Seven
Two weeks later
It was Tuesday afternoon and there were six weeks left before the competition. All teams had to bring their robot to the school hall for a safety check and formally submit their entry form.
10, Li, and I wheeled Ada on a low wagon, covered with an old, blue sheet. We entered the hall which had been cleared of tables and chairs to a low, buzzing murmur. Nearly everyone looked up at us. I held my breath and almost tripped on my own feet. 10 stood up, put her hands in her jean pockets, and glanced back at the door.
“Hi everyone,” Li said with three wide hand waves, wonderfully breaking the tension.
You’re awesome, Li.
“Come on, team,” I said, regaining some composure and pushing the wagon again.
Finding a space in a corner, I looked around the room and saw ten other teams with robots. Some of them looked like hobby projects that would struggle, but most were quite well-developed.
Dalk and his team were the noisiest by far. He had four other people with him: two girls and two boys. They all wore black boots, black jeans, and black jackets with their logo: a black square with a blood-red border, two red eyes and a rectangular red mouth.
There were another five or six people hanging around them, listening to Dalk talking. One of them pointed at us and Dalk turned around. The smile on his face turned into a scowl as he stared right at me. Our plan was to play up to his arrogance, so I feigned panic and quickly looked away. But when I looked back, Dalk was still looking at me and kept adjusting the watch on his wrist.
I’ve never seen him look like that. Have we really got him so worried? What are you thinking, Dalk?
“Ok, ok, come on now, settle down,” Principal Tajek spoke on a microphone in the middle of the hall, waving his arms to encourage quiet. “Ok, ok, welcome everyone, today we’re taking entries for this year’s robot competition. Ok, now here is Mrs. D’Silva to tell you more.”
“Thank you, Principal Tajek. Good morning, students,” Mrs. D’Silva said, with a lot more energy and life than the principal, though the reply from the students was the typical slow monotone.
“That’s the spirit. This is going to be a big year for the robot competition. We have four more teams than last year, 60 percent of team members are female, and we have at least double the tension already, which is great.”
“Today we will just be checking that your robot is basically safe. Also, that it is a robot built by students, and not by, oh, say, a global robotics company.”
The hall filled with oohs and a few giggles. Dalk pulled out his phone and started typing.
“When we call out your team number, come to the middle of the hall with your robot. Each robot has to have a short conversation, place part of its body in this tub of water and then walk around those five cones. Team One, Huffleclaw, you’re up,” Mrs. D’Silva yelled into the microphone. “Nice. I like it. Some props given to the ‘other’ houses in Harry Potter. Could have gone with Ravenpuff, but you probably made the right choice.”
There were two members of Huffleclaw, a girl named Katrin and a boy named Matias, who wheeled their robot to the center of the hall. Katrin lifted a small, homemade flag above them of a yellow badger with blue wings.
Their robot was also yellow and blue, about four feet tall, with a pyramid-shaped head, one arm with two joints coming out of the front (or back) and it moved on continuous tracks.
Definition: Continuous track, also called tank tread or caterpillar track, is a system of vehicle propulsion in which a continuous band of treads or track plates is driven by two or more wheels.
The school librarian, Mr. Jabari, was with team Huffleclaw in the center of the hall. I watched as the team turned on their robot and Mr. Jabari asked it a few questions from his tablet, looking up and occasionally nodding. The hall was too noisy for me to hear the questions, despite following Li’s suggestion to close my eyes.
“Don’t worry, technically, this is the easiest part. Total level one. Ada will be fine. Should be,” 10 said, head in her laptop.
We were the ninth team in line, so I pretended to do final check-ups on Ada to distract myself but kept watching. Team Huffleclaw easily navigated the five cones and got an exaggerated thumbs-up from Mr. Jabari, and the two team members gave each other a relieved fist bump.
After that came anothe
r seven teams. I made notes about all of them in my little green book.
Number
Team name
Description of robot
1
Huffleclaw
Blue and yellow, about sixty cm tall, with a pyramid-shaped head, one arm with two joints coming out of the front (or back) and moved on continuous tracks. Did ok, but not fast.
2
Sharks With Lasers
Blue and silver, low, triangle shape, three arms from the top. Seemed ok but made a lot of odd noises.
3
HAL 45.3
White, humanoid, lots of red LED lights. Was slow but precise going through the cones.
4
Tiger
The size of a small tiger with blocky legs and square head, a few orange/yellow and black stripes on its back. When it placed a foot in the tub it gave off a bright blue spark which made a loud noise and a smell like rotten eggs. They were given one week’s notice to fix it to be able to enter the competition.
5
Streaky
Odd shapes, stacked precariously on top of each other with visible wires. Fell over at first cone and caught fire. One-week warning.
6
Ukko
Dalk’s team, Ukko looked like Li described. Nearly two meters tall, jet black, shiny, round head covered in small circles which were lights, sensors and cameras—the head looked alive. Ukko’s body looked strong, with all four limbs big and robust. It did the physical test so fast a lot of other teams clapped. Dalk bowed and stared at me again. He is nuts.
7
Astro Dude
Short humanoid, black feet, spiky head. Moved fast. It was actually pretty good.
8
Rob Marley
Almost round, a meter diameter, with green paneling and a wig of dreadlocks duct-taped on top. They couldn’t seem to get it started, resulting in a big fight between the team and then Mr. Jabari when he gave them the one-week warning notice.
“Team Nine, Ada,” yelled Mrs. D’Silva into the mic.
The whole hall was watching as I walked to the wagon. I took a breath and quickly pulled the blue sheet off. There was a collective gasp as 10 turned Ada on and it started some slow, deliberate movements.
10, Li, and I had tripled our efforts since the failed water test and the focus on teamwork had paid off. We asked each other for help, and it led to better work and a stronger connection.
Li’s suggestions for data inputs to help the mental, riddle component seemed odd to me, and completely ludicrous to 10. We went to a market and felt the skin of different fruits. We played the number two top song from every year since 1969 from three different countries. We spent an hour talking about the color yellow. If nothing else, I knew no one else would have done that.
To Li’s unbridled joy, 10 had embraced adding some of Ellie Carpenter’s grace to Ada. Coming to the lab early one day, I even found Ada with a soccer uniform on doing basic drills.
Following the disaster in the tub, waterproofing became a priority. 10 alternated between defensiveness and denial. Eventually I found that a combination of questions, challenges, and uninterrupted time worked best with 10.
We had also worked, under Li’s direction, to make Ada look better. Ada was 165 centimeters tall, a lot shorter than Ukko. Humanoid shape. Arms and legs, lean and curved. Shoulders smaller than a human, with arms starting out at a slight angle, giving the impression of readiness. Strong legs, with knees that allowed for full 360-degree range of motion.
Ada’s color was impressive; 10 had even complimented Li. It was a metallic blur of purple, blue, and red. You couldn’t tell where one color stopped and another began. On Ada’s chest was the team’s new logo. It was a hex nut with a heart inside. A blue background to represent the sky and a green heart for nature.
Causing the biggest sensation by far was Ada’s waist. Dalk was the only one who didn’t seem impressed, though I think I saw the tiniest movement on his jawline. Ada’s middle section was a steel gray ball. It allowed Ada’s torso and legs to rotate freely. It was a true innovation and a big risk for the team.
10 had a sketch of it on her wall and in our second week working together I asked her what it was. 10 got very excited by what it could do and the difference it would make. 10 didn’t really want to, but we showed Lucia.
Lucia spent almost ten minutes looking at the sketches without saying anything. We all stood in Lucia’s study waiting and taking in the amazing room. Finally Lucia put the paper down, took her glasses off, and looked at us. “This design must have two power supplies, yes?”
“Um, sure, probably,” 10 said.
“No, not probably, definitely. We don’t have time for probably. You’ll be using magnetic resonance to maintain balance and this will require a stronger gyrometer,” Lucia stated, more than asked.
Definition: Gyrometer—A device that looks like a spinning wheel or disc, used for measuring velocity and balance.
10 sat up straighter, looked at me and Li, then back to Lucia and said firmly, “Yes, but…”
“You’ll need to adjust actuator signaling as well. What will you use for data and communications between the three parts, since you can’t hardwire?”
“Low power NFC, but that’s easy compared to the machining and the curved circuitry, and I have no idea how to even start on the heat management,” 10 said.
Lucia picked up her phone, a model none of us had ever seen before. She said something into her phone, and she turned it toward us as an image of 10’s drawing appeared on the screen.
“Call Dasan,” she instructed her phone, and a few seconds later a man’s voice filled the room.
“Hi Lucia. I’m looking at the sketches you just sent me now… Nice. Who did this? When do you need it done?” said Dasan over the speakers.
“We have six weeks, but this must be support and data only. There is a team of three I’ll send to you who must do implementation. Hardware lead is named 10. Dasan, she designed it and she’s like you thirty years ago,” Lucia said, making 10 blink slowly three times.
“Update in two hours,” said Dasan.
“Thanks,” Lucia said, as the call ended. Then she turned to me, “You met him in the café and passed his test.”
“What test?” I asked.
“He was one of five tests. If you found him and convinced him you were serious and worthy, he’d lead you to me. Now, he’s heading to your lab and will meet you in twenty-eight minutes to get to work on this. Don’t be late.”
“What did you mean I’m ‘like Dasan’?” 10 asked.
“When I met Dasan, he was smart and dedicated, but cynical. It’s a hard path to get from you to where he is now, but it’s a possible and worthwhile one if you choose to walk it. You now have twenty-seven minutes. Go. And 10? This is good work, well done,” Lucia said.
10 nodded with a small frown and walked out with us. A few minutes later, as we sat on the bus to meet Dasan, she finally spoke.
“For three years I’ve been beaten. I wasn’t good enough, no matter how hard I worked. Ok, I’ve got some good ideas, but ideas are worthless without action—you’ve got to make them real. Now we are doing better but in a team. Am I good enough now? Lucia is pretty hard, and she doesn’t dish out compliments very often. Maybe I am? That design for the waist is solid. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself?”
“Yes
, and yes,” said Li, with an arm around 10.
I smiled and enjoyed the moment.
Weeks of hard work later, and the people in the hall were mesmerized by Ada and the innovative waist.
“They can say ooh and ahh as much as they like but until it actually works, it’s just shiny vaporware,” 10 said. “Ok, let’s get through this checkpoint and get back to work.”
Definition: Vaporware—Software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.
Li was completely fine with accepting the praise, bowing like a circus master.
After 10 made a few keystrokes, the light in Ada’s eyes flashed on. We helped Ada off the wagon.
“Ready, Ada?” I said.
“Yes, let’s do this,” Ada replied with a fist pump and a full waist spin, getting the crowd oohing again. Ada stepped off the wagon and together we walked over to take the tests.
We’d answered thousands of harder questions than what would be asked in the competition, we had water tested a dozen times, and the cones were barely a warm-up for what 10 had Ada doing these days. This should be a breeze.
Ada passed the first test very easily. Before the water test, 10 was sweating and massaging her forehead, but there were no errors. 10 even smiled.
Ada then lined up for the cones test and I looked over toward Dalk, who was watching intently, his tablet in both hands.
He must be videoing Ada. Ha, at least he’s taking us seriously.
“Go!” Mr. Jabari said.
Ada took off. Around the first cone, then the second and third with grace. Approaching the last cone, clearly very fast, Ada lost balance and was about to fall. Ada’s waist twisted to adjust the center of gravity, leaned deep into the corner, and just made it. The crowd’s gasps turned to wild cheers.
She's Building a Robot Page 7
