Robo-Motion

I never really thought about how many items we use are similar to animals. It is interesting how scientists and inventors are able to create robots that were inspired by animals. This book does a nice job explaining it in kid terms. I think elementary school children would enjoy this book.

I'll be honest -- I've never been all that interested in robots or AI. I love biology, the fleshy, messy and softer side of science. And I love imagining the kinds of animals and plants we could find on other planets. So when I saw a book that took all my beloved animal stuff and merged it with other scientific discoveries, I hoped it would be great fun. And sure enough, it was.

While reading Robo-Motion: Robots That Move Like Animals, I quickly realized that, of course, scientists wouldn't try to "reinvent the wheel". They're studying what nature had already figured out, for inspiration in designing machines. They saw scuttling crabs and thought "that works, we'll build that so we can handle rocky terrain too". Simple and genius.

Biomimicry is what it's called and it's so cool to see it in action. Whether it's AquaJellies monitoring water conditions or RoboBees keeping tabs on weather or crops, we can all look at how they're working and agree that mimicking the real thing makes so much sense. If you want to inspire a child toward STEM, I can't think of a better book to give them than this one.