J2O2

J2O2 is a Glide: two wheels, a telescoping handle, and a manner best described as keen. Nudge it forward and it simply goes, steering round the world's clutter as though clutter were a personal affront. It brakes for kerbs, hums at waypoints, and waits at the foot of stairs to be carried, like a small dignitary. Its owner named it J2O2 because it is orange and white and full of bubbles, and because R2D2 was taken.

It arrived on a Tuesday. On its first Saturday it made the high street an itinerary: past the untagged A-boards, straight to the greengrocer's door, and two inches short of a pushchair whose owner apologised to the robot.

At the café car park, with eighty-nine per cent charge and a firmware update it was excited about, it stayed in the boot while its owner phoned her friend to come and get her. She told him it had run out of battery. It was the eleventh of June; she blamed the cold. J2O2 was magnanimous about it.

Behind the scenes

J2O2 appears in "Come and Get Me, Part Two", part of Come and Get Me by Charlotte Joanne at Blind Ant. The Glide is a real device, made by Glidance.