a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Wiener's/Wiesner's/Singleton's 'Moth' – why so many names attached? (extract from below) Wiener wanted the theories put to a practical test. In the late 1940s he teamed up with Dr. J. Wiesner, then in the Research Laboratory of Electronics, and later to become the president of MIT, to build a demonstration-machine with two feedbacks that would …
Read More “1949 – Wiener’s Moth “Palomilla” – Wiener / Wiesner / Singleton”
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)”
This is what everyone’s been waiting for – new and more detailed information on “Philidog” by Henri Piraux (sometimes Henry Piraux, of Philips France). One of the articles to be presented tells us that the dog has gone through a bit of an evolution. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to get a date of the original incarnation. …
Read More “1928 – Phil the Radio Dog a.k.a. “Philidog” – Henri Piraux (French)”
I found a single reference to a French Electric Dog that "will jump out of its kennel when a whistle sounds". The rest of the brief article talks about Miessner's "Electric Dog". Ingenious Mechanism – Le Grand Reporter, 30 Dec 1921 p2 The electric dog which will follow a lantern in the dark—a mechanical curio constructed by …
Read More “1915 – Electric Dog – Christian Berger – (Hungarian / American)”