Tara Binns: Roving Robotics Genius

Ruby Band 14

Tara Binns

Tara Binns s

u g i R n i o n b v e o t o i G c s R

TARA BINNS ROVING ROBOTICS GENIUS

s u g i R n i o n b v e o t o i G c s R

SMASH! Tara Binns thought the smart robot was supposed to be intelligent.

So why is it ignoring simple instructions?

Why did it crash down the stairs and mess up the lab?

WISE

This book has been endorsed by The WISE Campaign.

collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat

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An adventure story

Lisa Rajan

Alessia Trunfio 21/10/2021 17:24

Tara Binns

s u g i R n i o n b v e o t o i G c s R

Written by Lisa Rajan Illustrated by Alessia Trunfio

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Chapter 1 Tara Binns eyed the door to the attic.

I’ve got time for a quick adventure before we go out, she thought, climbing the steps. She pushed open the trapdoor and scrambled up.

She moved over to the costume box, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Each time Tara visited the box, it gave her a costume to wear, a job to do and an inspirational adventure.

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Her hand tingled as she pushed open the lid. The tingling spread up her arm and around her whole body.

A shimmering mist swirled up out of the box and surrounded her. She felt herself tumbling and spinning away from the attic … through space and time.

What will I be today? she wondered.

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Chapter 2 When Tara opened her eyes, she was in a laboratory surrounded by robots. There were robot hands, robot arms and robot legs.

Oh! A robot on wheels bumped into her legs.

WOAH! Tara ducked as a robot with propellers swerved around her head.

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“Sorry!” said the boy controlling it. “You appeared right in its flight path!”

A girl scooped up the robot by Tara’s feet. “That’s Ortez – he’s a robotics engineer. He designed all these machines,” she explained.

“And that’s Ayesha,” smiled Ortez. “She teaches the robots how to learn from their surroundings and from their mistakes. It’s called artificial intelligence or AI.” The robots are probably cleverer than I am, thought Tara.

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“What do these robots do?” asked Tara.

“This is our latest design,” said Ortez proudly.

“It’s a delivery robot called Livi. It can carry parcels and boxes and deliver them to your house. But only if you live at street level. It can’t climb stairs … yet.”

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“But if we can teach it to go up and down stairs, it will be able to go anywhere,” explained Ayesha. “We’ll be able to make lots of robots and sell them to companies that make deliveries. All the robotics companies are trying to solve the stairs problem. The first to do it will have the best design and could sell hundreds of delivery robots.

The pressure is on!”

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Ruby Band 14

Tara Binns

Tara Binns s

u g i R n i o n b v e o t o i G c s R

TARA BINNS ROVING ROBOTICS GENIUS

s u g i R n i o n b v e o t o i G c s R

SMASH! Tara Binns thought the smart robot was supposed to be intelligent.

So why is it ignoring simple instructions?

Why did it crash down the stairs and mess up the lab?

WISE

This book has been endorsed by The WISE Campaign.

collins.co.uk/collinsbigcat

87232_Cover.indd 1

An adventure story

Lisa Rajan

Alessia Trunfio 21/10/2021 17:24