• Time Line of History Making Mobile Robots + Other Significant Robots and Events
• Page map for History Making Robots

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. Sadly he passed away on 26/04/2016.
Much more on the history of Cybernetic Animals and Cybernetics in Art is at his site www.cyberneticzoo.com

Significant Robots - and time-line events

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

Help Wanted

[100BC

Antikythera mechanical astronomical calculator. http://www.antikythera-mechanism.com/ [Oct07]

[1791 - Luigi Galvani publishes "De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari"

the treatise described Galvani’s experimental enquiries into the interactions between electricity and muscular motion, and his theory of animal electricity. http://137.204.24.205/cis13b/bsco3/intro_opera.asp?id_opera=23] [Oct14]

[1818 - Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein]

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

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

[1920 - Paul Wegener's film 'Der Golem: wie er in die Welt kam', aka: 'The Golem: How He Came Into The World'; 'The Golem'. http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/gh.htm#golem Feb2013]...more below

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

[1928

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

1929

Philidog [cyberneticzoo] - 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]

[1931 - James Whale's film 'Frankenstein'. http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/fr.htm#stein Feb2013]

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

[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

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 - "A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity"

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.]

[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.
Elmer was an electronic animal designed to seek light and avoid obstacles
and was used by Grey Walter in his research into the human brain.

1948

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. Like Elmer, Elsie was used by Grey Walter in his research into the human brain.

[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 Radio controlled robot by Pilot Officer Sale

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

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 - HM - by Edmund C. Berkeley A small robot squirrel which was able to collect 'nuts' (tennis or golf balls). The first robot to be able to carry out a defined task, as opposed to just steer towards light. The first robot to have a manipulator under automatic control. Squee is the first of the true robots.

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 - 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 - Remote controlled humanoid robot

1955

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

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. See also Radio-controlled Mr Robotham http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=64897 - right at end of clip[Mar11]

[1956  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  Humanoid robot Gygan the same as Mr Moto, ~1963

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 - Meccano trolley The trolley built by Alex Andrew was controlled over an umbilical by Uttley's conditional probability analog computer, which using its 31 capacitor memory was able to learn how to track the boundaries between white and black areas.

1960

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

1960

Stanford Cart built by James L. Adams http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/cart.htm [December 2009] The history of the Cart only goes to emphasise how incompetant most robotics researchers are at anything mechanical. It only lasted so long because it was there and nearly worked and they couldn't make anything better[1]. Sad really. [ref.1] Moravec dissertation 1980 http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/users/hpm/project.archive/robot.papers/1975.cart/1980.html.thesis/index.html

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

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

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	A design by Bernard Dickman (American), Popular Electronics, March 1962. Maybe the first published design for a Line Following vehicle.

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 - 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 - HM A design by Peter Holland, Radio Control Models & Electronics, December 1964. Article as PDF fred-RCMEDec64.pdf 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. My version, May 1990. See http://cyberneticzoo.com/cyberneticanimals/1964-fred-a-light-seeking-creature-peter-holland-british/

~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. My version

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

[1966 - Star Trek - TV series]

1966

Shakey - HM Stanford Research Institute

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

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

1968

Frank and McGhee: Shift-register logic controls walking of Phony Pony. {sometimes erroneously Phoney Pony, and sometimes The Californian Horse} Only straight line walk and trot.

[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  MERVE by Peter Vogel

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

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.

1972 - 'Free Roving Machine' by MF Huber, Wireless World Dec.'72 - auto charging line-following robot.

[1973 - Film - Westworld]

[1974 - Intel launch the 8080 microprocessor]

[1974 - launch of The Altair microprocessor kit]

[1975 - Film - The Stepford Wives]

1975

WiLF - HM Probably the first hobby design for a Line Following vehicle published in the UK. Everyday Electronice June 1975 My version

[1976 - Film - Futureworld]

[1976 - Apple-1 personal computer launched]

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

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]

1977

Hilare An acronym of "Heuristiques Intégrées aux Logiciels et aux Automatisms dans un Robot Évolutif". Designed in 1977 at the Laboratoire d'Automatique et d'Analyse des Systèmes du C.N.R.S Toulouse, (LAAS), it is the first French autonomous mobile robot equipped with ultrasound sensors and laser telemeter. Now in the Musée des Arts Et Métiers, Paris. [June 2009]

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

[1979 - Film - Alien - Ash]

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

1979

Hebot - HM A design published in Hobby Electronics, November 1979 - January 1980. Maybe the first published design for a robot vehicle with a heirarchy of behaviours.

[1979 March - Acorn Sytem-1 launched]

[1980 January 29 - Sinclair launches ZX80 personal computer]

1980

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. My version

1980  Unicorn   DIY robot

[1981 March 5 - Sinclair launches ZX81 personal computer]

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 - 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/[gone March 2015]

[1982 April 23 - Sinclair launches Spectrum personal computer]

[1982 August - Commodore-64 personal computer launched]

1982  Hebot-II   Turtle - Powertran Cybernetics - published - Hobby Elelctronics November 1982

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

1983

Odex-1 - HM a large six-legged walking robot, March 1983, Odetics Inc. http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=2462 [March 2010]

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

Sutherland: Computer controlled, hydraulic, self-contained hexapod carries human rider. http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=2550 [March 2010]

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

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

1986	Kazuo Yamafuji, Professor Emeritus at the University of Electro-Communications inTokyo, built the first two-wheel inverted pendulum robot. (Japan Times article 2001)

1986

Adaptive Suspension Vehicle - HM A Six legged walking vehicle http://cyberneticzoo.com/?p=2465 [March 2010]

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

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

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 Now in the Permanent Collection of the Science Museum, London, England.

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 - 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 - HM The original two servo biped walker.

• Thomas Ross, "A Machine That Thinks", Scientific American, 1933, Vol. 148, page 206.
• Thomas Ross, "Synthesis of Intelligence - Its implications", Psychological Review, 1938, Vol. 45, page 185-9.
• Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1948.
• W. Grey Walter, "An Imitation of Life", Scientific American, May 1950, pp. 42-45
• Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1950.
• W. Grey Walter, "A Machine That Learns", Scientific American, August 1951, Vol. 185, No. 2, page 60.
• John Pfeiffer, "This Mouse is Smarter Than You Are", Popular Science, March 1952, page 99.
• Jasia Reichardt, Robots: Fact, Fiction + Prediction, Thames & Hudson, 1978.
• The Robot Book, Robert Malone, Push Pin Press, 1978.
• Robots Robots Robots, Harry M Geduld and Ronald Gottesman, Editors, New York Graphic Society, 1978.
• Recovering MIT's AI Film History http://projects.csail.mit.edu/films/index.php [Jan07]
  Films of MIT turtles, robot arms etc.
• History of AI http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/history.html [Jan07]
• AI time line http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/bbhist.html [Jan07]
• The History of Computing http://csrc.lse.ac.uk/History/01HISTORYCD-WELCOME!.HTM [Jan07]
• CHRONOLOGY of the History of Science and Science Fiction http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/timeline.html [Jan07]
• Milestones in the Development of Legged Robots, MIT Leg Laboratory.http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/leglab/background/milestones.html [Jan07]

More information
• Antikythera Mechanism http://www.antikythera-mechanism.com/ [Oct07]
• The Golem - Lisa Nocks http://www.academia.edu/679899/The_Golem_Between_the_Technological_and_the_Divine [Feb2013]
• Gengis http://groups.csail.mit.edu/lbr/genghis/ [Jan07]
• Hero-1 http://www.hero-1.com/ [Nov07]
• Honda-P2 http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/history/p1_p2_p3.html [Feb07]
• RB5X http://www.megadroid.com/Robots/rb5x.htm [Nov07]
Miscellaneous
• http://www.megadroid.com.htm [Nov07] - information on companies and robots that laid a foundation for the future.
• http://www.theoldrobots.com [Nov07] - Educational, Personal and Toy Robots from the 1980's and 1990's
• http://www.theoldrobots.net [Nov07] - photos, Educational, Personal and Toy Robots.
• http://www.robotgallery.com/robotgallery/index.html [Feb08] - Historical information on Personal robots.
• http://www.smallrobot.com/androbot.html [Feb08] - Androbot - Topo, Bob and Fred