a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
"HILARE" An acronym of "Heuristiques Intégrées aux Logiciels et aux Automatisms dans un Robot Évolutif". Designed in 1977 at the Laboratoire d'Automatique et d'Analyse des Systèmes du C.N.R.S Toulouse, (LAAS), it is the first French autonomous mobile robot equipped with ultrasound sensors and laser telemetry. My friend David Buckley with HILARE, to give a comparison …
Read More “1977 – “HILARE” Autonomous Mobile Robot – French”
My initiial intention with this posting was to show "Zoe" as an example of an early Anthropomorphic mechanical master-slave manipulator as well as being a drawing machine. What is presented are some images and illustrations of John Nevil Maskelyne's "Zoe", and an operational description of what could be "Zoe", but nevertheless a contemporary suggestion of how a …
Read More “1877 – “Zoe” the Drawing Automaton – John Nevil Maskelyne (British)”
The insect-like walkers were referred to as "cockroaches". In the early 70s, at the Institute of Applied mathematics (IPM) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, a six-legged walking machine controlled on a base of a mathematical model of motion control was developed. The machine motion and the terrain were rendered on a display. …
Read More “1977 – IPM Six-Legged Walker with Laser Scanning – Okhotsimski et al (Soviet)”
The construction of passenger carts walking beam engine of the Soviet inventor I. Lyagusha from Lysychansk (Fig. 1) is programmed more complex trajectory of the 'legs', which is based on t? kzhe is oval. These walking machine with a pre-laid in them the program of the movement "legs" go blind, not adapting to the conditions …
Read More “1977c – Hybrid Walking Cart – I. Lyagusha (Soviet)”
"Moonlight Special" Photo at Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories Top – "Moonlight Special" , Middle- "Moonlight Flash" , Bottom Right – "Midnight Express" all in full dress. In 1977, Machine Design sponsored yet another mouse contest, "The great Clock Climbing Contest", coupled with the rediscovered information of the 1972 "Le Mouse 5000" contest that spurred on …
Read More “1977-79 – “Moonlight Special” Battelle Inst. (American)”