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Cosme, le chevalier de lumière… est le dernier né et le géant des automates.           
Nous voilà bien loin des premières poupées articulées. Cosme n'est pas seulement colossal (5 m. de haut, 1.350 kg), il a de l'ambition et veut synthétiser en lui l'humanité présente et future dans le contexte technique qui est le nôtre.                                           
Animé par un ordinateur, sa démonstration est un spectacle audiovisuel impressionnant. Avec ses 2.000 lampes, ses 25 km de câble, Cosme nous transporte pendant 28 minutes dans une sorte de monde interplanétaire où la couleur et la lumière sont reines…
Cosme n'a pas de domicile fixe car il est extrêmement demandé, il circule beaucoup, malgré ses orgueilleuses proportions, et on peut le voir au hasard d'une exposition, d'une manifestation en France ou à l'étranger. Il s'est produit récemment à Orly, lors d'une exposition d'automates.
Entièrement conçu par Mme Jeanne Renucci-Convers, Cosme a été réalisé par PHILIPS.

Translation by Google

Cosme, the knight of light … is the latest and giant robots.
We are far from the first jointed dolls. Cosme is not only huge (5 m. High, 1350 kg), it has ambition and wants him to synthesize the present and future humanity in the context technique that is ours.
Powered by a computer, it is an audiovisual demonstration impressive. With its 2,000 lights, 25 km of cable, Cosme transports us for 28 minutes in a sort of interplanetary world where color and light are queens …
Cosme has no fixed abode because it is extremely required, it runs a lot, despite its proud proportions, and can be seen at random an exhibition, an event in France or abroad. He has recently Orly, during an exhibition of automata.
Entirely designed by Jeanne Renucci-Convers, Cosme was made by PHILIPS.

Exhibition Brochure

COSME Press photo

2000 LAMPES POUR LE "CHEVALIER DE L'ESPACE". L'OEUVRE DU SCULPTEUR JEANNE RENUCCI-CONVERS, "COSME", SYMBOLISANT LE CHEVALIER DE L'ESPACE, EST  COMPOSES DE 2000 LAMPES DE PRES DE TROIS CENT SORTES. 
HAUT DE CINQ METRES, CE MONSTRE DE LUMIÈRE PESE 1350 KG ET SA REALISATION A DEMANDE UN AN DE FABRICATION APRES TROIS MOIS DE CONCEPTION. 25 KM DE FILS ONT ETE NECESSAIRES POUR ASSURER L'ALIMENTATION EN COURANT ELECTRIQUE DE CETTE OEUVRE GIGANTESQUE EXPOSEE ACTUELLEMENT DANS LA VITRINE PHILIPS. A PARIS.

Google  translation
2000 LAMPS FOR "KNIGHT OF SPACE." THE WORK OF SCULPTOR JEANNE RENUCCI-CONVERS, "Cosme" SYMBOLIZING THE KNIGHT OF SPACE IS THE COMPOUNDS OF LIGHTS 2000 NEARLY THREE HUNDRED AND KIND.
TOP FIVE METERS THIS MONSTER LIGHT WEIGH AND ITS REALIZATION 1350 KG ASKED ONE YEAR AFTER THREE MONTHS OF MANUFACTURING DESIGN. 25 KM FROM SON WAS NECESSARY TO ENSURE THE ELECTRICAL POWER SUPPLY THIS WORK CURRENTLY FACING HUGE IN DISPLAY PHILIPS. PARIS.

COSME , LE CHEVALIER DE L'ESPACE

http://www.sculpteurs-plasticiens.org/oeuvre-245-1265.html
par Jeanne Renucci-Convers
Matière : Lumiere & structure acier inox

Dimensions : 1200-1000-1000 cm

Poids : 1350 kg

Année : 1968 / 1971

Photographe : BLAISE-LELONG-ROY

Adresse d'exposition : Conservée depuis 1981 au Centre International du Futur, Salines Royale d'ARC-EN-SENANS .
Patrimoine mondial depuis 1982

Collection : publique

" Pionnière et théoricienne, elle invente cette première sculpture de lumière fonctionnant avec ordinateur, possédant sentiments, sensations, verbe et mémoire. Elle ouvre une voie nouvelle et certaine dans les domaines artistiques et poétiques en transposant sur le plan créatif de l'Art l'équation Energie / Matière". Citation de la médaille de Vermeil du progrès. Promotion Cdt J.Y COUSTEAU 1973. Dédiée à la conquête spatiale, aux citoyens du monde, microcosmes humains. Maillons des civilisations dans un condensé de notre humanisme

English translation by Google

COSME, THE KNIGHT OF SPACE

http://www.sculpteurs-plasticiens.org/oeuvre-245-1265.html
by Jeanne-Renucci Convers
Material: Lumiere & stainless steel structure

Dimensions: 1200-1000-1000 cm

Weight: 1350 kg

Year: 1968/1971

Photographer: BLAISE-Lelong-ROY

Exhibition address: Preserved since 1981 at the International Centre of the Future, Royal Saltworks RAINBOW SENANS.
World Heritage since 1982

Collection: Public

"A pioneer and theorist, she invented the first light sculpture running computer, with emotions, sensations, and word memory. It opens a new way and some in the artistic and poetic transposition of the creative art of the equation Energy / matter ". Quote of the Vermeil medal of progress. Promotion Cdt Cousteau J.Y 1973. Dedicated to the conquest of space, citizens of the world, human microcosms. Links of civilizations in our condensed humanism.

Philips Electronics worldwide has a history of supporting electronics in art.  A similar idea to Cosme is PETE (Philips Electronics Telecommunications Equipment), built one year later in Australia by Stan Ostoja-Kotkowski .

Source: Electronics Today International, January 1973 .

Modern Mechanix, Sept 1931.

Cast-off Shoes Make Tires for "Rough Rider" Bicycle

IF YOU don't know what to do with your old shoes, here's a suggestion—make bike wheels out of them. No less a unique stunt has been performed by Marie Glory, a well-known Parisian bicycling enthusiast, as the photo at left shows. The regular wheel has been dispensed with altogether, and the "shoe wheel" substituted.
Each shoe is fitted over a form, which is in turn attached to the ends of a spoke, of which there are six on each wheel. Although these bike wheels are the last word in novelty, it cannot be said that they are the last word in comfortable riding. The inventor, however, enjoys the sport.

Discarded shoes fitted on wooden spokes form wheel rims of this bike, made by Marie Glory.

See Gyro Gearloose's version of the Walking bike here.

see also  1934 – Unicycle and  1981- "Joggercycle" Hybrid Walking Bike
 

"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 telemetry.

My friend David Buckley with HILARE, to give a comparison of size. [June 2009]

Now in the Musée des Arts Et Métiers, Paris. [June 2009]

See Robotics Age Spring 1980 pdf here

See Robot Research pdf here

HILARE II built in 1990. HILARE-III (not pictured) was built in 1999.

From Daniel C. Dennett's Home Page http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/incbios/dennettd/dennettd.htm [Mar08]
REWARD for information! I found it in an antique shop in Paris. It was made in France in the 1950s, so I have named it Tati, in honor of Jacques Tati (whose classic film Mon Oncle captures the same era with the same ingenious and humorous use of technology). I do not know who made Tati, or why, and would be pleased to receive any substantiated information about its provenance.
Further information was received on 12 March 2008 by email –
One correspondent has told me that Tati (my name for it, of course, not the name its creator chose, certainly) was commissioned by Prince Louis de Broglie, the Belgian physicist and Nobel laureate, for his granddaughter in Paris. She fell on hard times and sold it to an antique dealer. Could be, but my efforts to confirm the story have not yet born fruit.
Best wishes,
Daniel Dennett

[Ed. - Louis de Broglie was actually French and a bachelor.]

Image of "Tati" reversed on actual cover of book.

Tati on the cover of Dan Dennett's book Brianchildren Essays on Designing Minds.

The spring head antenna is most likely an overhead collision or bump detector. There are 4 sets of contacts inside the head, surrounding a dark red, brownish ball mounted on the lower end of the spring. A possibility could also be that it is used for manual steering/guidance, much like a joystick.

I'm unsure what the 3 sets of contacts mounted in the nose perform. Each of the lower contacts has a fine, element type wire wound around it. To the left, as seen in the previous image, is a cooling fan (and not the motor used for eye or jaw movement). These contacts may be a type of thermostat.

The driven gear wheel with attached crank arm steers the head. The head is unable to fully rotate; my guess is that it can only rotate about 30 deg. left or right, which also gives clues as to how it needs to be steered for overall guidance.

The aluminium 'cups' are Selenium cells – you can see metallic strips (3 strips) [ also seen in IOTA (4 strips)], but are mounted at the rear.
 
Unlike IOTA, where the selenium cells are used as 'eyes' for photo-tropism, they appear to be positioned more for remote-control purposes. So rather than be led by a light beam, it is possibly controlled by a light beam from behind. There are 5 separate cells at the rear (tati06.jpg – above); 2 located at each rear corner facing directly behind ; 2 at 90 deg to those just mentioned for side control; and 1 single cell directed rearwards mounted mid-point on the rear of the dog's body.
 
Possibilities on how these operated:
 
Factors to consider: steering is limited in the amount of head turn (see other photos for later discussion). This being the case, a reversing mechanism is probably required for the dog. What triggers the reversing mechanism? The central selenium cell?

• rear central facing rearward -  for stopping / starting dog, or using negative tropisms e.g. when illuminated from the rear, drive ahead – steering straight.  More likely it triggers the dog to reverse its drive motor. (Note: The steering wheel is also the driving wheel. The side wheels are unpowered).
• rear-left – facing rearward – function unknown?
• rear-left – facing left – forces steering to the left?
• rear – right – facing rearward – function unknown?
• rear – right – facing right  – forces steering to the right?

The brand of the battery is “Wonder”. It is an old French firm. This firm was sold to the American company Ralston (Energizer) in 1988. Certainly that little battery does not power the motors. There are no images of the rear of the robot dog, but I suspect that is where the heavier, larger batteries reside.

The GE 2N107 transistor was introduced into the market in 1955. See the Semiconductor Museum here.

Close-up of one of the Selenium cells.

The red motor in the back of the head drives a worm gear which in turn connects to the red eyes to swivel them left or right.

The motor is from the S.E.V company (Société Anonyme pour L’Équipment Électrique des Véhicules) that manufactured pre-war car components. It is a wiper motor, one of the few that could operate in manual or automatic mode at that time. [Nico-Aug 2011]

You can just see the vertical worm drive. This may be the motor and drive system that tilts the head.

Crude form of distance counter incorporated in the wheel. As the red tangs pass under the contacts, a circuit is opened and closed.

To the right of the blue-taped relay coil is an oval spindle (a cam). As it rotates it opens a pair of contacts mounted on each side of the cam. Function currently unknown.

The white-taped rod is the carrying handle. The diagonal rod operates the steering. Another bent rod at the base of the head lifts or lowers the head. There is a rod, threaded both end, that travels from the left to the right of the body. There is a crank and rod in the middle, but its function is currently unknown.

In 1956, there were a couple of press reports of Anatole, the robot secretary was on show at the Paris Office Equipment Exhibit. Claims that French engineer A. Grouvel constructed him four years earlier (making it 1952). At the exhibition, the robot exhibited its ability to talk and print envelopes.

VIDEO CLIP

There is a period French newsreel clip showing "Anatole" found here Gaumont Pathe Archives . You have to be registered (free) and logged in to see the preview.  Search for "5443EJ 47008" without the quotes in the reference search field.