MakerS as innovators Chapter 1 Meet Dash and Dot H ave you ever wished your toys could do more Wouldn’t it be cool if they could move talk sing or dance whenever you wanted them to If this sounds interesting you might be interested in Dash and Dot These toy robots are made by a company called Wonder Workshop When you first meet Dash and Dot you can use remote control apps on a tablet Dash and Dot are toy robots you can program and play with 44
Did You Know People have been building robot-like devices for thousands of years Around 350 BCE a mathematician named Archytas built an artificial pigeon It was made of wood powered by steam and could fly only about 656 feet 200 meters before it ran out of energy Robots have come a long way since then or phone to play with them As you get more comfort able you can start using a programming language like Blockly to make your robots do a lot more Before we jump in and understand how to use Dash and Dot let’s learn a little about robots You may already have a favorite movie robot like the friendly Baymax from Big Hero 6 or BB-8 from Star Wars Robots in movies often look and behave a lot like people Sometimes they even have emotions In real life very few robots look or act like human beings Robots are machines that are designed to do a particular job or follow commands that we give them They come in all different shapes and sizes They don’t have to breathe eat or sleep like people do That makes it possible for them to do difficult things like exploring the depths of the oceans or the surfaces of distant planets Robots also work much faster than humans and never feel tired This makes them very good at factory jobs that people find boring to do 5 Dash anD Dot
MakerS as innovators Scientists and engineers are building robots to be more and more like humans such as assembling the same products over and over They are also used to do things that humans can’t such as moving very heavy materials Many people use robots to do chores that they don’t want to do For example a robot called Roomba can vacuum your house for you Robots used to be incredibly expensive Some still are But today the electronics and other parts we need to build robots are less expensive than ever before That means we can have new kinds of robots like toy robots for kids Dash and Dot are some of the cool est kid-friendly robots around They can help you tell 6
Dash and Dot can be controlled with a tablet or phone to do many amazing things stories put on robot plays or learn to write code Are you ready to meet them Dot is the simpler robot of the two It is just a tur quoise ball with a big electronic eye It is about the size of a tennis ball It can roll around light up and talk It knows when you throw or catch it This makes it easy for Dot to become a part of the games you play with your friends Dash is made up of three balls on wheels plus a head with an eye on top While Dot can only roll in the direction you push it Dash can move on its own in many directions It can also spin dance sing make 7 Dash anD Dot
