davidbuckley.net
home   19 March 2009
History Makers
Updates @19 March 2009
The links from the pictures here take you to the Time-Line entries below
and the links from the Time-Line entries take you to the individual robot pages.

These pages would not exist without the research, support and enthusiasm of Reuben Hoggett.

History Making Mobile-Robots - HM
1912 Electric Dog 1937 Elektro 1949 Elsie 1951 Tortoise 1951 Squee 1952 Maze Solving Computer 1953 Timothy Turtle Teal 1955 1955 Mr Robotham 1962 Creep 1962 Icarus 1964 Fred 1966 Shakey 1968 Mosher's GE Walking Truck 1972 Cyclops 1979 BigTrak 1980 TimbugII 1982 RB5X 1982 Hero1 1982 Zeaker prototype 1983 Zeaker 1983 Odex 1983 Sinclair Projects Prowler 1984 Zero2 1988 Shadow Biped 1989 Genghis 1996 Honda P2 1998 BigFoot
(Not yet included in list - Stanford Cart, Xee, Hebot1.....)

Significant Robots - and time-line events
100BC Antikythera mechanical astronomical calculator 1868 Dederick's Steam Man 1890 Edison's Talking Doll 1927 Maria - Film 1928 Eric 1932 Roboter/Alpha 1951 Gort - Film 1953 Garco 1956 Robby - Film 1957 Gygan 1957 Ladybird 1958 Uttley, boundary follower 1962 Unimate 1962 Lunarwalker ~1965 Moonwalker 1965 B9 - Film 1968 Iron-Mule 1968 Phony Pony 1972 Drones - Film 1977 Droids - Film 1977 OSU-Hexapod with Vision System 1980 Unicorn 1982 Hebot II 1986 Johnny 5 - Film 1987 Data - Film

The miscellaneous robots.
Because We Can (build robots) - the rest of the robots
1893 Moore's Steam Man 1932 Berlin Radio Man 1948 Erector Giant robot 1950 George 1953 Horace 1955 Mr Robotham 1960 Zemanek #5 1961 MM47 1962 arm 1971 MERV

Pseudo, Art, Entertainment and Fictional robots - to clarify some misunderstandings

Help Wanted
unknown unknown

Time Line of History Making Mobile Robots + Other Significant Robots and Events
[100BC Antikythera mechanical astronomical calculator 100BC Antikythera mechanical astronomical calculator.
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.com/ [Oct07]

[1818 - Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein]

1868 Dederick's Steam Man 1868 Zadoc P. Dederick builds and is granted a patent on his Steam Man

[1868 - Fiction - in Edward S. Ellis's story "The Huge Hunter, or the Steam Man of the Prairies",
Johnny Brainerd builds a Steam Man.]

[1876 - Fiction - in Harold Cohen's story "Frank Reade and His Steam Man of the Plains, or, The Terror of the West",
Frank Reade builds the Steam Man MkII.]

[1879 - Fiction - in Luis Senarens's story "Frank Reade Jr. and His Steam Wonder",
Frank Reade Jr. builds the Steam Man MkIII.]

[1885 - Fiction - in Luis Senarens's story "The electric man, or, Frank Reade, Jr. in Australia",
Frank Reade Jr. uses an Electric Man.]

1890 Edison's Talking Doll 1890  Edison's Talking Doll

1893 Moore's Steam Man 1893  George Moore invents a Steam Man

[1907 - L. Frank Baum (The Wizard of Oz) described the mechanical man Tiktok of Oz in his 1907 story Ozma of Oz,
as an 'Extra-Responsive, Thought-Creating, Perfect-Talking Mechanical Man ...Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything but Live.']

1912 Electric Dog 1912 Electric Dog - HM
John Hammond, Jr. and Benjamin Miessner
a phototropic dog.

[1921 - August 16th, John Hays Hammond Jr. was granted a patent, applied for 7th June 1912, covering the principles of the 1912 Electric Dog]

[1921 - Karel Capek's play R.U.R.]

[1922 - paper "A New Formula for Behaviorism" by Edward C. Tolman, cognitive behaviorist]

[1927 Maria 1927 Film  Fritz Lang's silent movie Metropolis - robot Maria]

[1928 Eric 1928 Humanoid robot Eric,
designed by Captain W H Richards, opened the annual exhibition, in London, of the Model Engineers' Society]

1929 - Philidog - HM
Their [Dr. William Grey Walter's "tortoises"] phototropism had been anticipated by "Philidog," creation of one M. Piraux of the Philips organization in France. It was demonstrated at the Paris International Radio Exhibition of 1929. The "dog" would follow the movements of a flashlight, but when the lamp was put too close to its nose sensor, "It would become annoyed and start to bark!"
Frederick W. Chesson's "A HISTORY OF THE ROBOTIC WORLD" first published in INTERFACE AGE for April 1978.

[1930 January 1st - Captain W H Richards shows off another version of Eric at a Wintergardens exhibition. GAUMONT GRAPHIC NEWSREEL]

[1930 Swiss Engineer Eugene Wendling's entertainment robot Televox]

[1932 - book "Purposive Behavior in Animals and Men" by Edward C. Tolman, cognitive behaviorist]

[1932 Roboter/Alpha 1932  Humanoid robot Roboter / Alpha exhibited at the London Radio Exhibition]

1930s - Phillips' Dog and Horse -HM
At the 1995 Model Engineer Exhibition, London, on the University of East London stand I was demonstrating Elizabeth and Victoria when I was approached by a Mr. W. Palmer. In 1929 he had joined the Phillips company in Cape Town, South Africa and remembered that in 1930 the company had built a dog with selenium cell eyes and later built a horse but he wasn't sure what they did. Mr Palmer, who had bright blue eyes seemed to me to be about 65 and I couldn't understand how he could remember until he explained that he was nearly 90! Are there any other refernces to these?
See 1929 above.

1937 Electo 1937 Westinghouse Elektro - HM
Elektro, a large humanoid robot, was exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

1938 - Maze Solver - Thomas Ross
of the University of Washington built a free-running machine, which could solve deeper mazes than his original moving-arm mechanism of 1933.
Thomas Ross, "Synthesis of Intelligence - Its implications", Psychological Review, 1938, Vol. 45, page 185-9. [Wallace 1952]

[1938 - Lester Del Rey's short story "Helen O'Loy" published (December) in Astounding. ]

[1939 - Edward C. Tolman proposes a purposive behaviorism based 'sowbug',
maybe the first description of a behavior-based architecture suitable for robotics.]

1940 - Westinghouse Sparko
an electric dog, a companion to Elektro at the 1940 New York World's Fair.

[1940 - Isaac Assimov's short story "Robbie" published (as "Strange Playfellow") (September). ]

[1942 - Isaac Asimov's short story "Runaround", in which he first set out the three laws of robotics, published in Astounding.]

[1943 - Mathematicians Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts show how it is possible for neural networks to compute and propose that the behavior of the brain can be treated as a network of neurons that behave like on-off switches.
"A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity"]

[1943 - Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener & Julian Bigelow coin the term "cybernetics" in a 1943 paper.]

[1946 - George Devol was granted a patent for a general purpose playback device for machines.]

[1948 - Nobert Wiener's book "Cybernetics"]

1948 - Elmer - HM - by William Grey Walter.
Grey Walter builds his first tortoise Elmer in his 'backroom laboratory' at home.

1949 Elsie 1949 Elsie - HM - by William Grey Walter.
Elsie, Walter's second tortoise, and Elmer were demonstrated to the press.
Daily Mail, 17 November 1949; Daily Express, 13 December 1949.

[1950 - Asimov's novel I Robot is published
and set loose the words he invented - Robotics, Roboticist, Positronic-brains and Robopsychology]

[1950 - Alan Turing articulates his computer intelligence test,
which challenges potentially intelligent machines to prove indistinguishable from humans in conversation.
"COMPUTING MACHINERY AND INTELLIGENCE" http://cogprints.org/499/00/turing.html [Jan07]]

1950 George 1950  George Radio controlled robot by Pilot Officer Sale

[1951 Gort 1951 Film  Film - The Day the Earth Stood Still - Gort]

1951 Tortoise 1951 Grey Walter's electronic tortoises were exhibited at the Festival of Britain.
These were six improved versions designed and built for Walter by Mr W J 'Bunny' Warren.
The Festival of Britain opened on 3rd May 1951 and ran throughout the summer.

1951 Squee 1951 Squee - HM - by Edmund C. Berkeley
A small robot squirrel which was able to collect 'nuts' (tennis or golf balls).

1952 - Maze solving mouse - Claude Shannon
of the Bell Telephone Laboratories completed a maze solving machine having a magnetic "mouse" propelled by a motor running under the maze.
John Pfeiffer, "This Mouse is Smarter Than You Are", Popular Science, March 1952, page 99. [Wallace 1952]

1952 - The Maze Solving Computer - HM - Richard A. Wallace
The maze solving computer is a small digital computing machine mounted on wheels which is able to explore mazes made of toy train track and "learn" the correct path to a predetermined goal.
Richard A. Wallace, L. & O. Research and Development Co.
Proceedings of the 1952 ACM national meeting (Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pages: 119 - 125
Year of Publication: 1952, Sponsors ACM: Association for Computing Machinery : Mellon Institute
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=609800&type=pdf&coll=&dl=ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618 to download the pdf file [Jul07].

[1953 - W. Grey Walter; The Living Brain, App.B - The design of M. Speculatrix]

1953 Timothy Turtle 1953 Timothy Turtle - HM
A cybernetic animal by Jack H Kubanoff published in Radio & Television News April 1953.
Probably the first design for a cybernetic animal to be published as a construction project.

1953 Garco 1953  Garco - Remote controlled humanoid robot

~1955 Teal 1955 Teal - HM
A design by Peter Holland, published in The Model Maker about 1955.
Probably the first design for a walking vehicle to be published in Britain as a construction project.

1955 Mr Robotham 1955 Mr Robotham 1955 Mr Robotham - HM
A design by Peter Holland, published in The Model Maker December 1955.
Probably the first design for a 'walking' robot to be published in Britain as a construction project.

[1956 Robby 1956 Film  Film - Forbidden Planet - Robby]

[1956 - The "Logic Theorist" is invented by Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon.
It is considered to be the first artificial intelligence program]

[1956 - Dartmouth conference on Artificial Intelligence. The field of AI is given its name by John McCarthy.]

[1956 - George Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger found Unimation, the World's first robot company, and they will make the Unimate robot arm.]

1957 Gygan 1957  Humanoid robot Gygan the same as Mr Moto, ~1963

1957 Ladybird 1957  Katicabogár (Ladybird) by Dániel Muszka and László Kalmár.

[1958 - John McCarthy introduces LISP, which becomes the accepted computer language by most A.I. programmers]

[1958(?) - Dan Dare, Reign of the Robots, Eagle comic vol.8/8-9/4]

1958 Uttley, boundary follower, 1958
Uttley - Meccano trolley
Controlled over an umbilical by a conditional probability analog computer,
the trolley was able to learn how to track the boundaries between white and black areas.
Learning took place in a 31 capacitor memory.

1960 Zemanek #5 1960 Zemanek #5
Zemanek et. al. build a series of robots to model combination of conditioned reflexes

[1961 - George Devol is granted a patent (filed 1954) for a 'Programmed Article Transfer Machine' ]

[1962 Unimate 1962  General Motors install a Unimate as the world's first robot on a production line]

1962 Lunarwalker 1962 Lunarwalker - a walking robot designed, by Aerojet General, for the Surveyor Project to explore the Moon.
The Lunarwalker was the forerunner of the Moonwalker legged 'wheelchair' and the Iron-Mule concept test-bed.

1962 Creep 1962 Creep - HM
A radio controlled programmable robot with an arm and gripper,
designed by T R Bridge, Radio Control Models & Electronics April 1962.

1962 Icarus 1962 p1 Icarus 1962 p2 Icarus 1962 p3 Icarus - HM
A design by A B Orr, Newnes Practical Mechanics July 1962.
Following on from Grey Walters machines this was probably the first design for a phototropic vehicle with a scanning turret published as a construction project.
My version built April 1990 won a Gold medal at the Robot Olympics, Glasgow 1990! The judges seemed to know nothing about robotics.

1964 Fred 1964 front Fred 1964 back Fred 1964 under Fred - HM
A design by Peter Holland, Radio Control Models & Electronics, December 1964.
Probably the first published design for a phototropic vehicle which didn't follow Grey Walters design of a scanning turret coupled to the front wheel. Instead Fred's turret independently rotates and a sensor integrates the light level over the Port and Starboard sectors and directs the steering to head to the brightest sector.
Photos show my version, May 1990.

~1965 Moonwalker ~1965 Moonwalker - an 8-leg 'wheelchair' developed by Aerojet General for the University of California's Child Amputee Prosthetics Center,

1965 - Hexy - HM
A design by G Drapper, Radio Control Models & Electronics, March 1965.
Maybe the first 'reverse to turn' phototropic vehicle, using one photosensor, one motor and one relay.

[1965 B9 1965 Film  Lost in Space - TV series, Robot B9]

[1966 - Star Trek - TV series]

1966 Shakey 1966 Shakey - HM
Stanford Research Institute

1968 Iron Mule 1968 Iron Mule - feasability tests carried out by Aerojet General with an experimental 8-leg walking machine for a proposed US army "Iron-Mule" (never built).

[1968 - Marvin Minsky & Seymour Papert publish Perceptrons, demonstrating limits of simple neural nets]

1968 Mosher's GE Walking Truck 1968 General Electric four legged walking 'truck' - HM
Designed by Ralph Mosher and built by General Electric for the US army.

1968 Phony Pony 1968 Frank and McGhee: Shift-register logic controls walking of Phony Pony.
{sometimes erroneously Phoney Pony, and sometimes The Californian Horse}

[1968 - Film - 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick. The self-aware computer character HAL 9000.]

1969 - Emma - HM
'Electronic Mime Mobile Animal'
A design published in Practical Electronics, March/April 1969.

[1970 - Lunakhod 1, first robot rover on the lunar surface]

1971 MERV 1971  MERVE by Peter Vogel

[1972 Drones 1972 Film  Film - Silent Running - Drones Huey, Dewey, Louie]

1972 Cyclops 1972 Cyclops 1972 Cyclops 1972
Cyclops - HM
Cybernetic light seeking robot - by L C Galitz
A design published in The Radio Constructor, Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec 1972.

[1973 - Film - Westworld]

[1974 - Intel launch the 8080 microprocessor]

[1974 - launch of The Altair microprocessor kit]

[1975 - Film - The Stepford Wives]

1975 - WiLF - HM
A design published in Everyday Electronics, June 1975.
Probably the first published design for a Line Following vehicle.

[1976 - Film - Futureworld]

[1976 - Apple-1 personal computer launched]

[1977 Droids 1977 Film  Film - Star Wars - R2-D2, C-3PO]

1977 OSU-Hexapod with Vision System, 1977  McGhee built the Ohio State University OSU Hexapod. Shown here with the Vision System added in 1985.

[1977 - Film - Demon Seed]

[1977 - Asea produce a microcomputer controlled range of robot arms]

[1977 - Microsoft is founded]

[1978 - November, Mark Pauline founds Survival Research Laboratories http://www.srl.org]

[1979 - Film - Alien - Ash]

1979 BigTrak 1979 Bigtrak (BIG TRAK) - HM
programmable electric vehicle toy created by Milton Bradley.
It was a six-wheeled tank with a blue 'photon' beam and a keypad on top.
The toy could remember up to 16 commands which it then executed in sequence.

1979 - Moonlight Flash wins the World's first Micromouse competition.

[1980 Droids 1980 Film  Film - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - R2-D2, C-3PO]

[1980 - Sinclair launches ZX80 personal computer]

1980 TimbugII 1960 Timbug II - HM
A design published in Elektor, June 1980.
Maybe the first published design for a robot vehicle using ultrasonics for obstacle detection.
Uses an ultra-sonic beam to detect obstacles, avoidance is by random back-off and turn behaviour.

1980 Unicorn 1980  Unicorn   DIY robot

1982 Hebot II 1982  Hebot-II   Turtle - Powertran Cybernetics

1982 RB5X 1982 RB5X - HM
Personal Robot, still in production.
RB Robotics www.rbrobotics.com [Jan09]
http://www.megadroid.com/Robots/rb5x.htm [Nov07]

1982 Hero-1 1982 Hero-1 - HM
Heathkit educational robot
Heath Company began the HERO 1 project in October 1979.
The first units were available in 1982 and sales continued throughout most of the eighties.
http://www.hero-1.com/

1982 Zeaker prototype 1982 Zeaker - HM - Designed by David Buckley
Black vehicle, the prototype Zeaker.
A computer controlled micro robot vehicle attached by an umbilical to its control station and host computer.
Built November 1982.

[1983 Droids 1983 Film  Film - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi - R2-D2, C-3PO]

1983 Zeaker 1983 Zeaker - HM - Designed by David Buckley
A computer controlled micro robot vehicle attached by an umbilical to its control station and host computer.
Published as a construction project in Practical Electronics May & June 1983 and sold by Colne Robotics.
Zeaker was the first British computer controlled micro robot vehicle to have comprehensive segmented bump sensors.
Illustrations of Zeaker used in The Usborne Practical Micro Book, p49, p75,
[Usborne Publishing Ltd, London, England, 1985. ISBN 086020 797 8]
Highly Commended at the 1988 Model Engineer Exhibition.
Photograph - Scale Models International, April 1988, p207.
Built February 1983.

1983 Odex 1983 Odex-1 - HM
a large six-legged walking robot
March 1983, Odetics Inc.

1983 - Sutherland: Computer controlled, hydraulic, self-contained hexapod carries human rider.

1983 Sinclair Projects Prowler 1983 Prowler - HM - Designed by David Buckley
The first design published in Britain for an expandable micro robot vehicle.
Controlled over an umbilical from a host computer.
Published in Sinclair Projects Aug. and Dec. 1983.
Built Summer 1983.

[1984 - International Personal Robot Congress & Exposition, Albuquerque, April 13-15 - be part of the beginning.]

1984 - DoubleVision - HM
Designed by David Buckley
A simple stereo scanning camera for a computer.
Published in Practical Robotics, July 1984.
Built June 1984.
Size 4" * 4" * 4"

1984 Zero2 1984 Zero-2 - HM - Designed by David Buckley
Expandable Turtle controlled over an umbilical from an host computer, driven by stepper motors and capable of precise movements, is able to follow lines using the inbuilt line following sensors.
Sold by Intergalactic Robots Ltd.
Design started July 1984.

[1984 - Film - The Terminator, T-800]

{1985 - TrolleyBot, interface a BigTrak motor and gearbox to a ZX81, Commodore-64, or BBC-B, Popular Computing Weekly 1985 Mar 14-20}

1985 - Trundle - HM
The Channel Four ZX81 based Robot.
The first construction project published in Britain, for a mobile robot with an onboard computer.

[1986 Johnny 5 1986 Film  Film - Short Circuit - Number 5 aka. Johnny 5]

1987 - Herbert - HM
A Soda Can collecting robot
Rodney A. Brooks, Jonathan H. Connell, and Peter Ning, Herbert: A second generation mobile robot, MIT AI Memo 1016 (January 1988).
Brooks, R.A., Intelligence without representation, Artificial Intelligence 47 (1991), 139-159 [pdf Jan07]
Rodney A. Brooks, Elephants Don't Play Chess, Robotics and Autonomous Systems 6 (1990) 3-15 [pdf Jan07]

[1987 Data 1987 Film  TV series - Star Trek: The Next Generation, featuring the android Lt. Commander Data]

[1988 Johnny 5 1986 Film  Film - Short Circuit 2 - Number 5 aka. Johnny 5]

1988 Shadow Biped 1988 Shadow Walker - HM Ret - Designed by David Buckley
A two legged human sized pneumatic powered walking robot.
Design and building started 1988.
Size - 5ft 6inches high, weight about 80lb

1989 Genghis 1989 Genghis - HM
a 1Kg six legged robot which walks under subsumption control and has an extremely distributed control system.
Brooks, Rodney A. A Robot That Walks; Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved Network, MIT AI Lab Memo 1091, February 1989.
Rodney A. Brooks, A robot that walks: Emergent behavior form a carefully evolved network, Neural Computation, 1(2) (Summer 1989) 253-262.
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/lbr/genghis/ [Jan07], Strangely althought the videos are available the paper isn't! Colin M. Angle, Genghis, a six legged autonomous walking robot, MIT S.B. Thesis in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (March 1989).

[1991 - Film - Terminator 2: Judgment Day, T-800,T-1000]

1994 - Omnivore - HM
Designed by Jonathan Connell and published in Omni October 1988.
A self contained robot vehicle with an electronic neural control circuit with layered behaviours.

[1994 - Film(TV) - The Companion]

[1994 - Dr. Ichiro Kato, Professor. at Waseda University's School of Science and Engineering, dies on June 19]

1996 Honda P2 1996 Honda P2 - HM
Honda's first public showing of a Biped Robot after a 10 year development program.
http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/history/p1_p2_p3.html[Feb07]

[1997 - The chess system Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov, the world's human chess champion for the previous twelve years]

1998 BigFoot 1998 BigFoot - HM
The original two servo biped walker.
Bibliography
Links
home  top