Robot designers are tinkering with robots that will make life easier and better. Before too long, future kids may have their own robot buddies to help do chores or just hang out with. Sound like science fiction? Well, it’s not. Robots are already part of our lives.

In Robots, you’ll meet mechanical marvels that are defusing bombs, assembling cars, exploring Mars, roaming the oceans, assisting surgeons, and guarding homes and businesses. In fact, any job that’s too dangerous, dirty or repetitive for a human is just right for a robot. But not all robots are hard at work. Some of today’s robots are riding camels, telling jokes, and kicking around soccer balls.

Robots takes you back in time to the earliest robots, many of which were toys. Then it zooms in on robots today and catches them at work and play. And it peers into the future, where humanlike androids may one day learn new tasks – and probably do them better than we can.