a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Frame walkers are a class of mobile robots that are robust and capable mobility platforms. Variations of the frame walker robot are in commercial use today are: Komatsu Ltd. of Japan developed the Remotely Controlled Underwater Surveyor (ReCUS) and Normed Shipyards of France developed the Marine Robot (RM3). Both applications of the frame walker …
Read More “1989 – Martin-Marietta Mars Rover – Wendell Chun (American)”
"Orient Express" is one of my favourites, showing Luggage with arms and legs! Robot with attitude! Harry Grant Dart (1869 – 1938) Unlike many illustrators who graduated from newspaper art departments to the more lucrative magazine markets, Harry Dart continued to work in both fields. Beginning with the Boston Herald, he was sent to Cuba …
Read More “1909c – Walking Machines (Fictional) – Harry Grant Dart (American)”
Jogging Machine Invented, Awaits Market . Daytona Beach Morning Journal – Dec 15, 1978 HYDE PARK. NY – Burt Shulman gently touched the throttle of the little machine strapped to his back. Suddenly he wasn't Burt Shulman at all, but Mercury about to become Icarus, a quiet mechanical engineer who was now the Match of …
The Quantum-Classical Transition on Trial: Is the Whole More Than the Sum of the Parts? by Hideo Mabuchi One quote that I really like came from my thesis adviser, Jeff Kimble (the Valentine Professor and professor of physics), and appeared on page 2 of the February 18, 1997, New York Times as the Quotation of …
Read More “2002 – Human-powered Mechanical Elephant – Caltech (American)”
"Seek", 1970 by Nicholas Negroponte with the Architecture Machine Group , M.I.T. Originally shown at the "Software" exhibition, curated by Jack Burnham for the Jewish Museum in New York 1970. This piece consisted of a Plexiglass encased, computer-controlled environment full of small blocks and inhabited by gerbils, who continuously changed the position of the blocks. Following instructions …