a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
The first of the 10 brothers by Jiro Aizawa. Aizawa uses the word 'born' to denote when the 'brothers' came into existance. Mr. Ichiro [Ichiro-Kun] was reportedly born in 1959. Mr. Ichiro in the background. Possibly Mr. Fugio [or Mr. Saburo] in the front. Mr. Ichiro on the left, followed by Mr Spark, Mr. Fugio, then …
Read More “1959 – Mr. Ichiro the Robot – Jiro Aizawa (Japanese)”
Creep Mk-2 – 1962 A radio controlled programmable robot with an arm and gripper, designed by T R Bridge, Radio Control Models & Electronics April 1962. Creep was programmable by recording, on a tape recorder, the control tones then playing back the tones and feeding them into the transmitter (see text in pdf below). The …
Not so well known is that there were two main types of R2-D2's in the original Star Wars space opera. The models operated by Kenny Baker, the other a radio-controlled (R/C) model. Visually the main difference is the Kenny Baker model only ever had two legs, and the R/C version had three, although the single …
Read More “1975-6 – R2-D2 (from Star Wars) – John Stears (British)”
An early, if not the first plans for a radio-controlled model of a Dalek by C. Rowlands as published in Radio Control models and Electronics Jan 1966 (really for Chrismas, Dec 1965). see pdf here
Built by L. Hilderbrand, a German Radio-control enthusiast. Published in Radio Control Models & Electronics, May 1965. See pdf