1983 – “Kludge” Omnidirectional Mobile Robot – John M. Holland (American)

1983 – "Kludge" Omnidirectional Mobile Robot by John M. Holland. Kludge with legs contracted. Kludge at a 1984 exhibition. John M. Holland. The focus in this post is on the unique mobility base, and not on its navigation and sensor qualities. Patent Information: Publication number    US4573548 A Publication date    4 Mar 1986 Filing date    23 …

1979 – “Rodney” Self-Programming Robot – David L. Heiserman (American)

"Rodney", the Self-Programming Robot is based on the book How to Build Your Own Self-Programming Robot by David L. Heiserman [TAB, 1979]. ByRamiro Molinaon September 18, 2013  This book is geared towards those that have good knowledge of electronics and are willing to jump into a project that involves CPU based control. It outlines how to …

1971 – Manned/Unmanned Lunar Explorer (MULE) Concept – NASA (American)

Manned/Unmanned Lunar Explorer (MULE) Another Dual-Mode (Manned/Unmanned) LRV for Post-Apollo missions. This one with manipluator arms. Courtesy of one of NASAs system engineering courses. Source: here. See other early Space Teleoperators here. See other early Lunar Robots here.

1959 – Lunar Robot Mobot (Concept) – Hughes Aircraft (American)

MACHINE TO EXPLORE MOON FIRST EXPLORER of the moon may be a machine. Roaming the crust, it would collect samples of rocks and dust with mechanical fingers, under remote control of spacemen remaining safely within a landed rocket ship. Hughes Aircraft company designers say it could be patterned closely after their Mobot, a mobile mechanical …

1960 – “Homobile” Lunar Rover – Hugo Gernsback (American)

In 1960, the indefatigable Gernsback came out with another lunar rover design. He called it the “Homobile.” It had a pressurized cabin mounted on tracks and powered by electricity from fuel cells, with a leg-powered generator as an alternate source of energy. The cabin also had a pair of manipulator arms. Source:Originally from “1961 Forecast”, …