1985 – “Aquarobot” Aquatic walking robot – (Japanese)

An early Artist's conception from the late 1970's. Source: Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction by Jasia Reichardt, 1978. Source: Field Test of Aquatic Walking Robot for Underwater Inspection Junichi Akizono, Senior Research Engineer Mineo Iwasaki, Chief of Robotics Laboratory Takashi Nemoto, Member of Robotics Laboratory Osamu Asakura, Member of Robotics Laboratory – Machinery Division Port …

1979 – 6-legged Walking Machine – Efimov et al (Soviet)

Above stills from the video clip. The mechanical model was developed at the Institute VNIITRANSMASH (St. Petersburg). The parameters of the machine are the follows: body length 0,6 m and body width 0,25 m, weight 40 kg, length of leg 0,4 m (Efimov et al., 1982). Efimov, V., Kudriasev, M. & Titov, A.(1982). Investigation of Robotics Systems, chap. …

1976 – “Masha” Hexapod – Gurfinkel et al (Soviet)

Masha being used in some force-feedback experiments. The experiment here to feed a cylinder into an inclined funnel. See Devjanin-Schneider paper here. The above three images show experimentation by Gorinevsky.  His paper is available here. Gorinevsky produced a video of the walking machine. After many media transformations, the quality is poor. See here.   The …

1961 – Moonwalker Lunar Rover – Space General Corp. (American)

Space General designers have built an insect-like vehicle with six legs, two arms, a triangular body, a solar-cell panel, and an antenna. The left arm, ending in a claw, picks up objects to examine. The right one holds a TV camera to do the looking – and to see where the vehicle is walking. This …