a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Typically zoomorphic autonomous robots pre 1950
Lux' protozoon * This device is a model of a unicellular animal: it consists of a short rubber cylinder with two slots (Fig. 98). According to the ideas of its inventor, it is anchored in a brook, half submerged in the water. The water in the "protozoon" is considered as the "food" it is in …
Read More “1920 – Electro-mechanical “protozoon” – Fritz Lux (German)”
Tesla – The Electric Mind 2-2 Model Model Patent number: 613809 (see full patent here) Filing date: Jul 1, 1898 Issue date: Nov 1898 In September 1898, Tesla demonstrates his radio-controlled torpedo boat at Madison Square Garden in Ney York City. (Popular Science July 1956). From Miessner's book "On the Early History of Radio Guidance", published in …
Read More “1898 – Telautomaton – Nikola Tesla (Serbian/American)”
In my earlier post on the "Electric Dog" by Miessner and Hammond (here), I commented on some uncertainty regarding Miessner's and Hammond's relationship together, and as to whether or not there may have been another dog built. This was as a result of how the newspaper and magazine articles were reporting on the "electric dog". …
Read More “1912 – Seleno, the Electric Dog – Hammond / Miessner -Addendum”
Place marker. E. C. Tolman, Discrimination vs. learning and the schematic sowbug, Psychol. Rev., 48, 1941, 367-382.
François Dussaud is more famous for inventions around the phonograph and cinema. A Swiss inventor, born in Geneva (b. 1870 – d. 1953) later lived in France. His patents are filed under the name of Charles François Dussaud. Note: The article below is from the French magazine Sciences & Vie 1938. It quotes 1938 for …
Read More “1934 – Endomechanic Vehicle – François Dussaud (Swiss/French)”