a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
A catalogue of Cybernetic Animals, including pre-Cybernetic Creatures
Either Hinz or Kunz as appeared in the 1962 Die Zeit article below. Hinz and Kunz (I can’t tell who is who at this stage) together with the electronic whistle. Hinz and Kunz appeared in the German robot exhibition “Die Roboter Kommen!” of 2007 Otto Walter Hasselof RH Note: Hinz and Kunz are significant in …
Read More “1962 – Hinz and Kunz Cybernetic Tortoises – Otto Walter Haseloff (German)”
A simple light-follower, based on the same 360degree rotating scanning principles as Grey Walter's tortoises. My friend David Buckley built one in 1990 see here.
Edward Chace Tolman (1886 – 1959) was an American psychologist. He was most famous for his studies on behavioral psychology. In my research for the write-up for this post, I found that the introduction to Endo and Arkin's 2000 paper on Implementing Tolman's Sowbug the best. I've reproduced the introduction here, but the full paper …
Read More “1939 – Sowbug Schematic – Edward Chace Tolman (American)”
With Sonar using Zenith television remote control 40kHz audio transducers, and vision using the then new vidicon image tubes. Mod II is actually facing forward, to the front. the boom arm if effectively its right-arm and extends when searching for an AC outlet. The Zenith ultrasonic transducors can be seen both on top and withing the …
Read More “1962-5 – Hopkins Beast Autonomous Robot Mod II (with Vision) – JHU APL (American)”
Pre-Vision version. See earlier and later models 1961 – APL-JHU "Ferdinand" Mod I 1962-5- APL-JHU Hopkins "Beast" Mod II with extended sonar & vision In below Video clip, see 1min 50secs in for 1min 40 seconds. Update: July 2013 – JHU APL have released a video clip (see below) showing the new vision system. The holes in the mesh …
Read More “1962-3 – Hopkins Beast Autonomous Robot Mod II (Pre-Vision) – JHU APL (American)”