1988 – P.O.W.E.R. Arm – University of Alabama / Wyle Laboratories (American)

The Flexible Robot Arm P.O.W.E.R. Introduction The Personal Occupied Woven Envelope Robot (P.O.W.E.R.) project is a joint effort of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) and Wyle Laboratories. This work is being performed under the Innovative Research Program for NASA. POWER is a flexible robot arm. It will be used as an "extension" of …

1988 – “Wendell” the Unicycle Rider – Garner Holt (American)

Wendell the Unicyclist premiered in 1988, and is the world’s only unicycle riding animatronic figure. He performs without any visible means of support. Source: The Illusion of Life: Lifelike Robotics, Gene W. Poor, 1991  "… But the most impressive component Garner brings to the animation marketplace is an extraordinarily creative mind with superb  problem-solving and …

1988 – “Rikky and Pete” Mechanical Horse – David Parker et al (Australian)

Plot Summary for Rikky and Pete (1988)  Follow the lives of Rikky, a talanted geologist, and her brother Pete, an off-the-wall mechanical genius. To find peace of mind they travel to the outbacks of Australia and meet up with a desert mining town full of zany individualists. In the movie, Pete builds a newspaper folding and …

1988 – “Shadow” Biped Walker – David Buckley et al (British)

Shadow Biped Walker by David Buckley – 1988  Information sourced from my friend David Buckley's own website here http://davidbuckley.net/DB/ShadBiped.htm. Shadow Walker – Retired in 2002 A two legged human sized pneumatic powered walking robot. Design and building started 1988. Size – 5ft 6inches high, weight about 80lb Operational area:- safety supporting frame 4ft * 8ft * 8ft …

1988-91 – AMBLER – John Bares & William “Red” Whittaker (American)

A good example of the "big iron" approach to mobile robots is AMBLER (acronym for Autonomous MoBiLe Exploration Robot), developed by Carnegie Mellon University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This behemoth stands about 5m (16.4ft) tall, is up to 7m (23.0ft) wide, and weights 2500 kg (5512 lb). It moves at a blistering 35 cm …