a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
This entry describes two references to transistorized versions of Grey Walter's tortoises. The second reference refers to people and organisations mentioned in another post on W. Grey Walter and Edmund C. Berkeley . 1957 Jan 25 [WGW response to letter.] The main difficulty is in the mechanical assembly, particularly the gearbox which has to be completely …
These next set of pictures show the new single-coil relays which were also used in the batch of 6 for the Festival of Britain in 1951. You will also notice the oil-filled capacitor has gone, and in one picture another capacitor is in place. This is most likely the capacitor used to give M. speculatrix …
ELSIE (Electro-mechanical robot, Light Sensitive with Internal and External stability ). The press at the time reported the arrival of ELSIE in late 1949, eg Daily Mail, 17 November 1949; and Daily Express, 13 December 1949. But a memo exists from Edison Swan to Grey dated 10 Mar 1948 suggests that the female tortoise [ELSIE] was also built in 1948. [Note: Edison …