a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
↵ 1948 GE Master-Slave Manipulator – John Payne Patent number: 2476249 (see here) Filing date: Nov 24, 1948 Issue date: Jul 1949 MECHANIX ILLUSTRATED, JUNE 1948 Mechanical Hands with Remote Control The village blacksmith of Longfellow may have had "muscles like iron bands," but scientist John Payne of General Electric has done him one better; …
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The monkey with the robot engineer. There appears to be a photo-electric cell mounted on the front. Maybe this is the 'robot' safeguard required for safe operation. Jiro Aizawa was the inventor of the robotized "Monkey Train" at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo. Its been siad that he also patented the train, but I have not been able …
Read More “1948 – Ueno Zoo Robotized “Monkey Train” – Jiro Aizawa (Japanese)”
Painting (1986) by Anton van Dalenshowing B.F. Skinner with Project Pigeon. Project Orcon During World War II, Project Pigeon (later Project Orcon, for "organic control") was American behaviorist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile. The control system involved a lens at the front of the missile projecting an image of the target to …
Read More “1940 – Project Pigeon (1948 – Project Orcon) – B.F. Skinner (American)”
Ex-Tom Norgate’s Mechanical Elephant supplied by Frank Stuart. The ex-Norgate elephant (“Ellie”) is the only known baby elephant to have a plate on it saying “Supplied by Frank Stuart”. Above 3 images courtesy Derek Tucker. The full history of Frank Stuart and his baby mechanical elephants (stiff legged, not the later walking elephants) remains unclear. In the mid …
Read More “1947-55 – Baby Mechanical Elephants – Frank Stuart (British)”
Whilst it was Frank Stuart that gets most of the credit for the famous British Robot Elephant, it was in fact Maurice Radburn, an employee of Frank Stuart's that toyed with the idea of building a Walking Elephant. Frank Stuart had already built a stiff-legged motorised elephant but wasn't entirely happy with it. Maurice Radburn …
Read More “1948-9 – “Bimbo” the Mechanical Elephant prototype – Maurice Radburn (British)”