1970 – Pneumatic Drawing and Painting Machines – David Jacobs (American)

Pages 51 – 52 [images above]  February 1970. A "drawing" and later "painting" machine which made the graph-like drawings in which we see both the simple program and the simple resultant "drawing." Later developments added variable voltage and therewith a "how much" on or off possibility. These and other developments made a greater apparent distance …

2001-4 – MEART Rat Neuron Drawing Machine – SymbioticA (Australian/American)

MEART: THE SEMI-LIVING ARTIST '2001-4'  SymbioticA Research Group in collaboration with The Potter Group SymbioticA Research Group were established in 2000 as one of the core research groups in SymbloticA, the Art & Science Collaborative Research Laboratory, School of Anatomy & Human Biology, University of Western Australia. The Potter Group was established in 1999 in …

1928 – “Gakutensoku” Pneumatic Writing Robot – Makoto Nishimura (Japanese)

Gakutensoku (學天則, Japanese for "learning from the laws of nature"), the first robot to be built in Japan, was created in Osaka in 1928. The robot was designed and manufactured by biologist and botanist Makoto Nishimura (1883-1956). Nishimura had served as a professor at Hokkaido Imperial University, studied Marimo and was an editorial adviser to …

1877 – “Zoe” the Drawing Automaton – John Nevil Maskelyne (British)

My initiial intention with this posting was to show "Zoe" as an example of an  early Anthropomorphic mechanical master-slave manipulator as well as being a drawing machine. What is presented are some images and illustrations of John Nevil Maskelyne's "Zoe", and an operational description of what could be "Zoe", but nevertheless a contemporary suggestion of how a …

1929 – Writing Robot – (American? / German?)

Modern Mechanix Nov, 1931 Video Lady Robot Used to Write Window Display Advertising IN THIS mechanical age machinery is being substituted for human beings in every possible and conceivable situation. One of the latest and most unique pieces of machinery to be put to use to supplant human agency is the almost human advertising contrivance, …