Hodiyah Fleurant, 5, compares drawings with SPARC staff member Holly Keenan. Staff member Maddie Short leads kids at SPARC in a game of capture the flag at the City Wide Community Center in Concord.

Before my daughter got to test out Dash and Dot, our dogs were already getting to know them. I’d gotten the two kid-friendly robots — Dash, who sits up high on three wheels, and Dot, his more static ...