Testing Athena

“Okay,” Nina said, clapping her hands. “Let’s get to work!”

“What exactly is going on with the arm?” Oliver asked while inspecting the robot.

“It’s not rotating as smoothly as I’d like to,” Nina took a dirty rag and formed it into a ball. “Mike. Show him.”

Mike went to the controls and turned the robot on. Several lights started flicking and some beeps started beeping. Everything looked great for Oliver. After a year of planning, trial and error, sleep deprivation, and many other gigs of building a robot, the result was beyond satisfactory.

“On the count of three,” Mike told Nina and she nodded. “One, two, three!”

Nina threw the ball of rags toward the robot. The robot instantly reacted and caught it with its left arm.

“Oh! Now I see,” Oliver said as all of them approached Athena’s left arm. “It’s doing the job but it’s jamming a little.”

”I’m scared that the whole shoulder might be damaged,” Nina lamented.

Mike took off the shoulder’s lid.

“It might be the actuator,” Mike said, examining the side panel. The moment he’s hand touched it, he jumped. “Ouch!”

“The motor shouldn’t be heating up like this,” Oliver said.

“What do you think?” Nina said. “It could probably indicate an overload.”

“Excessive friction in the gears,” Oliver mumbled as he tightened a bolt to release some pressure, but the problem persisted.

Mike glanced at the robot's diagnostic screen. Something didn’t add up. They stood there thinking in silence.

“Let’s reset the motor’s firmware,” Oliver said as he connected a diagnosis cable to the system port. He looked at Mike. “Make sure to disconnect the actuator from the main system to avoid damage.”

Mike followed his instructions. He disconnected the cables from the servomotor while Oliver executed a reset sequence on his GoMindfull. After a couple of beeps, the screen showed a message indicating that the torque parameters had been automatically adjusted.

“Done. Now, a small tweak in the feedback values,” Oliver said, adjusting the fine calibration in the software. The robot made a faint buzz and the shoulder began to move smoothly.

“Perfect,” Oliver said to himself, clearly satisfied and relieved that the problem turned out to be a simple fix.

“So it was a miscalibration!” Nina laughed and crossed her arms. “I don’t know if I love or hate you more right now.”

“Well, I do love you right now,” Mike said as he hugged Oliver from behind and gave him a good shake.

“I’m still sorry for not coming on Wednesday,” Oliver replied.

“Oh! Come on Oliver!” Mike exclaimed. “You’ve been wanting to join the Handler Academy ever since I’ve met you. You had to go to take that exam.”

Before Oliver could apologize again; Nina handed him a thin metallic hoop and a gray light-weighted overall. “Come on. Do the honors.”

Oliver just couldn’t hide his excitement, this was his favorite part. He quickly went behind two blackboards and changed from his school uniform to the suit while Nina and Mike went to the other side of the laboratory to start the simulator.

Oliver entered a small booth attached to a large room surrounded by transparent panels.

Oliver put the metallic hoop around his head and pressed a button on the back. He instantly went blind before “Welcome to ShareMindfull. Are you ready to pair with Athena05?” hovered in the air.

“Yes,” Oliver commanded.

The darkness turned into the view of one wall of the lab. The once-still robot started walking from the otter side of the lab to the transparent room, mirroring Oliver's movements inside the booth.

Athena smoothly slid the door and entered the transparent room. Inside there was nothing but a pile of sponges. Mike closed the door behind Athena.

“Are you ready?” Nina asked.

Handling was a funny thing, getting used to watching from the robot’s cameras and hearing from your ears was not as easy as one might think. Oliver was lost in thought and it took him a few seconds to respond. “Ready!”

“Simulation running,” said a computer voice from the room's speakers.

A green light circle lit up on the floor, surrounding Athena. The pile of sponges morphed into a copy of Athena and lunged forward without wasting time.

Athena crouched and received the impact, keeping a steady ground. She began to push back with her shoulder when Robosponge went for her knees. Oliver wasn´t expecting that movement, as he was flying in the air, he made a quick twist to meet his adversary face-to-face again. He took advantage of the impulse and tried to slam the sponges to the floor but Robosponge escaped the impact zone. Before Oliver could turn around the other robot seized Athena’s neck from the back. Athena quickly kicked back with her elbow. Once. Twice. And broke free from the opponent.

“What’s going on Oliver? Robosponge is crushing you!” Mike joked next the the booth, completely aware that Oliver could listen.

An inexisting crowd started roaring from the simulator’s speakers as the opponents circled each other in the ring.

Oliver lunged forward with a powerful shoulder tackle, knocking Robosponge back. Robosponge quickly regained his footing and countered with a series of swift punches to the midsection but Athena managed to dodge them. Oliver charged and the two locked up in a test of strength, straining as they tried to outmaneuver each other. Every move was met with a mix of cheers, screams, or gasps from the fictional audience.

After what felt like an eternity, the growing fatigue made Robosponge jam. Oliver didn't waste any time, Athena grabbed the robot by the waist and threw it out of the circle.

The lights in the room turned golden and the audience roared for Athena. Oliver couldn´t resist, raised his arms, and threw a victory dance.

“That was great!” Mike exclaimed, opening the booth and giving Oliver a few pats on the back.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Nina replied. “But i think she’s ready for Columbus!”

“Oh! She is!” Oliver exclaimed as the three started jumping in circles and screaming.

After calming down, Oliver walked Athena to a special transportation box.

“And with this…” Mike said while closing the box.

Nina pasted a stamp on top of the lid with the Ellipsis Stadium address.

“We’re two days away from Columbus Station!!!” They claimed.