1951 – James the Intelligent Robot – Edmund C. Berkeley (American)

Despite his attempts in trying, as seen in the attached documents, I don't believe Edmund C. Berkeley ever realized the construction of James the intelligent robot.

Specification of James: A man-like robot, with six sound tracks, a load speaker, and three or four sensory organs, which will seem to respond intelligently. – For rent to stores, etc.

The only other mention to James is in his Small Robots Report seen elsewhere on the web (my link to it found in my earlier post on Squee here.).  When I located these papers I thought I would display them as it gives an insight into Berkeley and the robots he was proposing in the 1950's.

 

It's interesting to note in one of the attatched papers that Berkeley was proposing training people to build the robots off the plans he was providing. Arguably he is the originator of 'home' or DIY Robotics. Here's the OCR'd extract

"Project 4. Robot World

A continuing exhibit of small one-of-a-kind robots including Simon, Squee, etc. Charge admission, sell plans; sell training in the construction of small robots; sell supplies. …"

See also the rare paper on robots titled "The Construction of Living Robots" by Berkeley in my earlier post here.