a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
After recently posting the entry on Vladimir Ischein's Walking Wheel (1983), I recalled having seen something similar. It turned out to be the toy "Space Crawler" of Major Matt Mason from 1967. This toy led to several other toymakers making similar devices. 1967 – Mattel's Major Matt Mason's Space Crawler Some Space Crawler Images sourced …
1983 – Soviet Walking Wheel by Vladimir Ischein. Google translation of original article here. I have not attempted to correct it. During its 50-year history of our magazine § repeatedly told about the vehicles with conventional propulsion. In recent years, interest in beskolesiym machines has increased significantly. This is due primarily to the development of …
Read More “1983 – Walking Wheel – Vladimir Ischein (Soviet Union)”
1973 – Wheel Walker – Ralph Mosher Wheels Used as Legs It is understood that many ideas have been presented that involve a combination of wheel actions such as rotation and orbiting. The idea shown in Figure 49 is different in that an immobilized wheel experiencing slipping and bulldozing will transfer its action from wheel …
1985 – Nuclear Inspection Robot "AMOOTY" climbing stairs in a mock-up of a nuclear power plant. Before AMOOTY there was MOOTY. No manipulator arm here, just vision and star-wheel propulsion. Text Source: Inside The Robot Kingdom, Frederik L. Schodt, 1988 If cleverly designed, a robot on modified wheels or tank treads can still have considerable …
Read More “1985 – Nuclear Maintenance Robot “AMOOTY” – Tokyo Uni / Toshiba (Japanese)”
4-Legged robot space explorer. Robot Rescuing an Astronaut on the Lunar Surface. Robot reminiscent of Odex-1. Legged robot turning a valve. Model Lunar walker from the French children's book "Permieres Vacances Sur La Lune" [“First Vacation on the Moon”], Marc Heimer – 1967. Above: Prediction of life on the moon c1965. Illustration from the …
Read More “1965 onwards – Miscellaneous Lunar and Off World Walker Concepts”