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Arya : That’s great! But how does Robbi do all the work?
Nitin : It works on electricity. There are electric batteries inside What is inside a robot

Robbi which store electricity and supply it to the various according to Nitin?
parts. These batteries have to be charged from time to

time, like how we all take food and water. When the supply of electricity
stops, Robbi stops working.

Arya : Does Robbi also sleep in the night like we do?

Nitin : Not really. When all the work is done, mummy takes Robbi to a corner and

presses a button. Its glowing eyes shut off. The humming noise also stops.
It stands still like a statue throughout the night. In the morning, mummy

presses another button and the eyes of Robbi begin to glow. Its body starts
humming and it is ready to start work again.

Arya : Oh I see! What else can it do?

Nitin : It can also tell stories and sing songs. But of course, it repeats the same songs
and stories. Mummy says that only a limited number of stories and songs are

present in its memory.

Arya : What is inside the robot?

Nitin : The inside of a robot is full of red, yellow and black wires. It has finely drawn
circuits on boards, tiny multi-coloured cylinders and numbered black boxes.

It is almost similar to what is inside a TV. And a robot has a brain too!

Arya : Interesting! But how does Robbi carry out instructions?

Nitin : Robbi has an ‘arm’ which moves around to pick up objects. It also has

motorised wheels which help it to move around. Then it has sensors which
like the human eyes or skin, can sense an object. And most importantly, it has

an electronic computer inside. Like the human brain, it makes calculations
and controls the movements according to the program fed into its memory -

just like how the human brain has memory.

Arya : Amazing! I wish I could take it home for a day. I want to show mummy how
it works.

Nitin : Yes, you can do that. But for every task, the robot has to be fed with a program

to perform it. It cannot perform a task if it does not have the program in its
memory. So it has to be re-programmed to perform tasks in your house.

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