Title: SCIENCE COMICS: Robots and Drones – Past, Present, and Future
Series: Science Comics
By: Mairghread Scott
ISBN: 9781626727922
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Summary: 
In factories! In the sky! In your cars and phones! In your own home! Robots are everywhere! And they have been for a lot longer than you might realize.
From tea-serving robots in feudal Japan to modern rovers exploring Mars, robots have been humanity’s partners, helpers, and protectors for centuries! Join one of the world’s earliest robots, a mechanical bird named Pouli, as he explores where robots came from, how they work, and where they’re going in this informative and hilarious new book! Ever dreamt of building your own best friend? It might be easier than you think!
Review:
This latest installment of Science Comics: Robots and Drones by Mairghread Scott was an interesting and delightful introduction to the history of robots and drones. As with previous books in the Science Comics series, this graphic novel is written for younger readers, though it was perfectly told for this reader, whom has limited knowledge of robots and drones. The use of humour throughout was nice.
The reader is shown many ways that robots are used in our daily lives. This certainly made me more aware of the quantity of robots in our lives and how convenient they make routine tasks. For example -> there was a dialogue involving Tim and T1M – both performing the same routine task (attaching nuts to bolts) where Tim can only perform the tasks before getting tired and bored, whereas the robot does not have such constraints. We differentiate the tasks assigned to both to make sure:
“Nowadays, we like to have humans like Tim do complex, creative jobs, like improving our technology. While robots, like T1M help build that technology.”
Discussions clarifying the difference between Robots and Drones was all encompassing. I would like to think that now I truly do understand the difference! I enjoyed the use of examples to solidify the understanding of what drones are and how they are different from robots in use currently:
“Of course, a lot of drones are also robots. They get general commands from their humans, but they also perform a lot of functions on their own. The best examples are the rovers NASA has on Mars right now, Spirit and Opportunity.”
There was terminology new to me and I found the explanations and illustrations that went along with those were easily understood and very entertaining. I found I was fully engaged throughout the reading of this book.
The Hall of Awesome Robots – 25 Robots you should know. A special section at the end of the book…a very entertaining addition, providing a chronology of robots throughout history from the early 1900’s to present day. The side comments of humour added so much to my enjoyment of the book.
There is also a section at the end of the book with a brief, yet more in-depth discussion about drones. And then of course, the Glossary, which is a good refresher of the words used throughout the book.
The illustrations by Jacob Chabot were very good. I really enjoyed the variations between the characters and time periods when discussing robots through the ages.
All in all, I really enjoyed this edition of Science Comics and recommend it to those wanting to learn more about robots and drones and those just looking to refresh their knowledge.
