a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Masha being used in some force-feedback experiments. The experiment here to feed a cylinder into an inclined funnel. See Devjanin-Schneider paper here. The above three images show experimentation by Gorinevsky. His paper is available here. Gorinevsky produced a video of the walking machine. After many media transformations, the quality is poor. See here.  The …
Read More “1976 – “Masha” Hexapod – Gurfinkel et al (Soviet)”
Diagram from Bessonov's and Umnov's paper. As seen at the Russian Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. Abstract from Bessonov's and Umnov's 1983 paper. This paper shows that in the task of the maintenance of constant orientation of the body of a walking robot the determination of the actual position of the body, i.e. absolute altitudes of its …
Read More “1983 – Six-Legged Walking Machine – Bessonov (Russian)”
Nicholas Yagn, of St.Petersburg, Russia, designed a set of walking, jumping, and running assisted apparatus from 1889-1890. An earlier version used a giant bow spring. The final version used compressed gas bags to store the energy. An example of a passive and human-powered exoskeleton . Patent number: 440684 Filing date: Feb 11, 1890 Issue date: Nov 1890 See …
Read More “1890 – Assisted-walking Device – Nicholas Yagn (Russian)”
Source: St Paul Globe 10 Dec 1889 A WALKING MACHINE A Minneapolis Man Comes to the Front With a Novel Invention. A Minneapolis man comes to the front with a walking machine. It is a cool, breezy day with a refrigerator in the corner when there is anything invented any place in the world ahead …
Read More “1889 – Walking Machine – Ira C.C. Rinehart (American)”
Video of Man-Mate CAM 1600 c1976 (narrated by Isaac Asimov). Text of above. New Industrial Boom Is Displayed by GE Schenectady General Electric recently displayed the third member of its family of "Industrial manipulators," the Man-Mate CAM 1600 industrial boom for material handling. The CAM 1600, like other Man-Mate booms, is designed to amplify the …
Read More “1969 – G.E. Man-Mate Industrial Manipulator – Ralph Mosher / Donald A. Kugath (American)”