SOLVED. A children's book introducing the ideas of robotics [s]

[Dmitry]

as a kid (late 80's) I remember reading a great book which was introducing the ideas of robotics in a very child-friendly manner.
I suppose the target audience was 10-12 y.o.
The story follows a "guy" who is creating increasingly complex robots (and improving the existing ones) to demonstrate the challenges and goals of robotics.
I distinctly recall that (one of) the first of his creations was a turtle like rower that needed to go to a charging station periodically (not unlike the Roomba vacuums we can buy today)
The illustrations were black and white, and plentiful, in fact the book may have been borderline a comic book
I've read the book in my native tongue but I'm certain the book was a translation and I don't recall what the original language was. In my mind there was a certain feeling of Americano to it. And later, upon coming to live in the US and catching an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 - the styling of the robots on the show and in the illustrations seemed similar.
I'm kinda obsessing over it for some reason as I want to introduce it to my own spawn now.
Would appreciate any suggestions, including similar books

edit: bumping up in hope a new member sees/recognizes this

[Kris]

Dmitry, is this non-fiction or fiction?

Can you tell us more about the illustrations - realistic/cartoony, simple/detailed? What about the cover?

Have you tried searching Worldcat.org for "robotics" and audience:Juvenile? http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch

[Dmitry]

@kris

The book is most certainly a fiction
The illustrations were very cartoonish, simplistic, somewhat caricature like.

As you suggested I've tried wordcat search, but that returns some 600 results, and I'm not recalling anything that I could use to narrow down that search

Was really hoping someone would simply recall it out here

[Yefim]

Was it in English? The first thing that springs to mind is a short sci-fi story by Anatoly Dneprov called Крабы идут по острову, which was about an experiment in evolving self-replicating machines.

[Dmitry]

@yefim no, this wasn't a sci-fi, but rather pop-sci, the "story" such as it was, served as a background to deliver concepts of robotics, I think it was targeted at teens.
I read it in Russian, it was published in late 80's, but I'm fairly sure it was a translation since the style of illustration felt foreign

The story you've suggested intrigued me, going to queue it up on kindle now if i can find it - thanks.

[Dmitry]

BUMP: hoping a new joiner would see/recognize this

[Adele]

There is a book called Run, Robot, Run in English, but it was originally published in French.

Here is the Russian edition with a picture of the cover:

Here is the (original) French edition

[Dmitry]

@Adele Score!
This has been bugging me for over a year!
I had the russian version with that exact cover!
This is incredibly satisfying!
Thank you!

[Adele]

Great! :-D