Science Comics: Robots and Drones: Past, Present, and Future

Gr 4–6—In this entry in the series, a mechanical bird reputed to have been invented in the fourth century BCE squires readers through a history of robotics and looks at the evolving role of robots, drones, and artificial intelligence (AI) in work and daily life. The narrator painstakingly explains that true robots are a specific type of machine designed to perform tasks in response to outside stimuli and traces their development from a hypercute 17th-century Japanese toy called a "karakuri ningyo" to today's smart homes and self-navigating aerial drones. The bird also offers general descriptions of the components in build-it-yourself robot kits, plus assorted references to robots in film and science fiction. Military drones, the purported danger of autonomous AI, and even AI rights receive glancing mentions, but troublesome issues of privacy, data theft, and jobs lost to automation go unexplored. In covering such a large subject, the narrative occasionally reads like a stodgy lecture ("Proto-robots are referenced in the Iliad"), but the sequential art—which features a diverse cast of young STEM enthusiasts, including one wearing a hijab—infuses the discourse with life.