a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
“Ruffnik’s moniker was a riff on the name of the first Russian space satellite “Sputnik,” launched the same year that 3-D Danny premiered on Channel 13. Constructed by the prop department at WKY-TV, Oklahoma City, and shipped to Channel 13 in a large, coffin-shaped crate, “Ruffnik” was a virtual duplicate of the robot used in …
Source and further imformation, see here. (from GroupBlog 222 and 10/3/2006 email) Sharon Berry told us about the creation of Oom-A-Gog, Mark I: My daddy, Jerry Berry, made Oom-A-Gog when I was 2 or 3 years old. It was on a TV cartoon show called Dr. N. Ventor here in Kansas City, Mo. I was …
Read More “1956 – OOM-A-GOG the Robot – Jerry Berry (American)”
Source: http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/rivets-golf.html – also contains video clip. Alan Scott & Mr. Rivets "Let Scott Do It" WPTZ, Channel 3 1954 There was a mechanical man on WPTZ, Channel 3 from 1952 to 1956. His name was Mr. Rivets and he was portrayed by Broadcast Pioneers member Joe Earley. The program was called "Let Skinner Do …
Read More “1952 – Mr. Rivets the Robot – Joe Earley (American)”
Reading Thoughts by Radio (Source: Popular Mechanics – May, 1924) Can thoughts be read by radio? “Madam Radora” seems to prove that they can. Madam is not a human being, but a life-size automaton shown at the Permanent Radio Fair in New York. Her “thoughts” and movements are controlled entirely by wireless; no wires of …
Text and some images sourced from here – http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/land/robart/robart.html This link also contains other links to ROBART information, not covered here. ROBART-I was Bart Everett‘s thesis project at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. and one of the very first behavior-based autonomous robots ever built. The navigation scheme provided a layered hierarchy of behaviors …
Read More “1980-82 – ROBART-I Sentry Robot – H. R. Everett (American)”