Oto-Bot (FiFadila, 2015)

Professor Teri is a genius scientist. Yet, he is absent-minded. He creates a versatile robot named  Oto-Bot. Unfortunately, he forgets how to turn the robot on. His note slips somewhere. Professor Teri is busy looking for the paper from work laboratory, bedroom, dining room, guest room, kitchen, up to storeroom.

Dani, Professor Teri’s grandchild, comes into the laboratory. He looks for his Grandpa to perform difficult Mathematics homework. Dani sees a figure is standing before window. Dani supposes that it is Grandpa. Dani creeps up and startles it.

“Baaang …. Grandpa Teri!” Dani pushes its waist.

That figure doesn’t jump over nor screamed in surprise. That figure falls against a table without moving. The sound of its fall startles Dani.

Clank! It sounds like hitting metal. Its back rushes against leg of the table. There is a sound like pushed button. Click.

Dani is puzzled to see it. The fallen figure is not Grandpa Teri. But, an iron bucket who is able to move.

“Hello … hello … hello …” says the iron bucket in computer machine voice. It waves its hand and sit upright.

“Hi, you are made by Grandpa Teri, aren’t you?” Dani is happy. He seems like have met some friend. He passes his hand and pulls the robot to stand. “My name is Dani. Who are you?”

The robot nods. “Hello, Dani. I am Oto-Bot, a versatile robot. Made by Professor Teri. I can do housecleaning. Can play football, too.”

Dani is pleased as punch. With this robot, he can be free of duty. He can play all the time.

“Can you do Math homework?” Dani puts his book on the table. “And then we can play football.”

Oto-Bot looks at Dani’s Mathematics book, “Sure …. But, my battery is low. I can go for fifteen minutes left.”

“Where is your charger?” Dani goes around grandfather’s laboratory looking for a kind of laptop charger. After turning around for ten minutes, he can find an appropriate charger for Oto-Bot. The charger slot is on Oto-Bot’s back.

“Charged me for 24 hours. I must be turned off, so as to not overheat,” says Oto-Bot pointing to a button on his back.

“It is not necessary. You can be charged while working on my homework. I used to play tablet while charging its battery and it was just fine,” answers Dani.

Dani hands his Math book to Oto-Bot. Oto-Bot’s eyes move scanning the ten Mathematics problems in front of them. Calculating size and volume of geometry. Less than ten minutes, Oto-Bot has done the ninth problem. Its writing is neat, too, like printing.

“Warning! Overheat. Overheat. Overheat. Take … the charger … off … the slot.” Oto-Bot gives warning.

Unfortunately, Dani is lost in getting the Oto-Bot’s warning. He is busy observing how sophisticated Oto-Bot works. He imagines, his teacher and friends will praise his homework.

Oto-Bot is still. Whereas there is only one problem left. Dani sniffs burnt smell. Oto-Bot’s back is smoky. Dani quickly unplugs its power supply.

“Oh, no! My book is burnt!” cries Dani. He sees Oto-Bot’s hand is smoky, too, and leaves dark traces on Dani’s book.

Dani is afraid. He has made two mistakes. First, he didn’t listen to Oto-Bot’s warning in order to charge the battery off stage. Second, he has damaged Grandpa’s robot. As a result, his homework is burnt. Not to mention he must get punishment from Grandpa.

“Dani, what are you doing in my laboratory without my permission?” Suddenly there is Grandpa Teri’s voice.

Dani bows. He is afraid Grandpa will be angry to him. However, he has no reason to escape from Grandpa’s anger. Then, Dani tells the smoky Oto-Bot incident honestly. He also willngly have the punishment.

Grandpa’s eyes rounded. “So, you had just turned Oto-Bot on? You talked to Oto-Bot? And Oto-Bot asked you to charge its battery?”

Dani is surprised when Grandpa taps his head proudly.

“Dani, you are a genius! Since a week ago I was confused how to turn Oto-Bot on. It turns out that you can do it. After you finish your homework, help me to fix Oto-Bot.”

Dani nods in relief and quickly go back to his room. Fortunately he told the truth to Grandpa. This time he performs his homework by himself with vigor. He can’t wait to help Grandpa fixing Oto-Bot.

FiFadila author of children’s literature lives in Malang, East Java, Indonesia

From "Oto-Bot", Kompas Anak, December 13, 2015