Month: August 2011

CMU Rover (showing camera slide). The CMU rover wheel drive assembly (simplified cross section). CMU Rover base assembly (showing wheels).   Basic robotics concepts – John M. Holland – 1983 The CMU Rover Fully Independent Drive At the time of this writing [1983] Dr. Hans Moravec at Carnegie-Mellon University is constructing a new mobile robotic …

Read More “1981-3 – Pluto CMU Rover – Hans Moravec et al (American)”

Wireless World, December 1972 Free Roving Machine by M.. F. Huber, B.Sc. A device which will "explore" a room and by finding and tracing the path of a length of tape laid on the floor, return to a charger at intervals to recharge its batteries A number of years ago, Dr. Grey Walter first demonstrated …

Read More “1972 – Free Roving Machine – M. F. Huber (British)”

Thring, at Queen Mary College built a fire-fighting robot in 1962. This robot navigated its way round a "track" using signals from a gyro compass and measuring distance by wheel-rotation. It left the track when it "saw" a fire and extinguished the fire when its "finger" sensed the flame. The idea was to develop a …

Read More “1962 – Robot Fire Cart – Meredith Thring (British)”

Emily – The Robot with a One Track Mind by Bernard Dickman Popular Electronics March 1962 The strange-looking object following the white line is named "Emily." She may look like a dishpan with eyes, but this "Electro-Mechanical Inebriated Ladybug" is actually an electronic robot of the simplest type. Though equipped with only one "sense organ" …

Read More “1962 – “Emily” the White-line Follower – Bernard Dickman (American)”

The devices perform alternating and quite different mechanical works which are controlled by a person. The object of the present construction is to amplify the force of a man and perform different kinds of mechanical works which otherwise have to be performed by hand. The principal kind of works to be performed are digging, pile-driving, …

Read More “1930 – Giant Mechanical Worker – Franz Hübl (Czechoslovakia)”