a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Extract from the book "Everyone Can Build a Robot Book " by Gene Oldfield and Kendra Bonnet, 1984. "The concept behind the Moth is very simple. When you turn on the robot in a dark room, the photocells have a high resistance rate that blocks the flow of electricity. The Moth does not move. When …
Read More “1984 – Moth , a light-seeking robot – Gene Oldfield (American)”
Michael Freeman's first robot was RUDY, a robot he designed and entered into the Westinghouse Science Fair in 1960, aged 13 where he won first place!. Rudy was a mechanical robot that could walk around by using a tether and wheels, and could remember where it went so that later on, it could re-trace its steps. …
Read More “1960 – Rudy the Robot – Michael Freeman (American)”
Pitman Designed as an "enhanced special forces capability for low intensity conflicts and counterterrorists". It was conceived at Los Alamos National Laboratory by Jeff Moore of Advanced Weapons Technology Group. The operator is housed in a 500 Lbs fiberglass, polymer/ceramic composite armor called Body Armor, Powered (BAP). Pitman is capable of carrying 300 Lbs of …
The Man-Amplifier The figure above shows a model of the Man-Amplifier proposed by Ross-Hime Designs. It has twenty-six degrees-of-freedom, excluding the hands. A 500 Lbs load capacity is engineered. The modular building block approach applied to the arm and leg actuators simplifies maintenance and reduces parts inventory. Singularity free, pitch-yaw type joints are utilized in …
Source: Mechanix Illustrated Oct, 1951. Source: Popular Mechanics Jan, 1954 Galveston Daily News 11 Mar 1953 Hold Your Autos; Horse A-Comin' CLEVELAND, Ohio (UP)—No reaction has come from the automotive world as yet, but George Bogart's invention would seem to be a cinch to cause a stir. He invented a horse. The 62-year-old inventor began …