a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Plot Summary for Rikky and Pete (1988) Follow the lives of Rikky, a talanted geologist, and her brother Pete, an off-the-wall mechanical genius. To find peace of mind they travel to the outbacks of Australia and meet up with a desert mining town full of zany individualists. In the movie, Pete builds a newspaper folding and …
Read More “1988 – “Rikky and Pete” Mechanical Horse – David Parker et al (Australian)”
Life-size Humanoid Walking Robots One of the hardest things to do in robotics is build a 2-legged robot. These robots, made from balsa wood and paper, use the lifting power provided by helium balloons or propellors to leverage themselved upright and activated via remote control. They seem to wander about with a mind of their own. …
Read More “2007 – Balloon-assisted Walking Robots – Simon Yates (Australian)”
Thring, at Queen Mary College built a fire-fighting robot in 1962. This robot navigated its way round a "track" using signals from a gyro compass and measuring distance by wheel-rotation. It left the track when it "saw" a fire and extinguished the fire when its "finger" sensed the flame. The idea was to develop a …
Read More “1962 – Robot Fire Cart – Meredith Thring (British)”
Trefor Prest creates some of the most amazing and fantastic sculpture I've ever come across. I've been to Gruyeres and seen H.R. Giger's work, seen Hans Bellmer's "Machine-Gunneress in A State of Grace", and to see Trefor's sculptures is something else again. His maritime series has a Vernian feel about them, a world of Nautilus submarine melded with …
Read More “1972 – BioMechanical Sculpture – Trefor Prest (Welsh-Australian)”
Source: Elementary Electronics, Sep-Oct 1976 ELEMENTARY ELECTRONICS/September-October 1976 Newscan A little screwdriver twist from his master, Tom Clayton, and a pat on the back from his "half-brother" is practically all that is necessary for Robbie, the robot, to demonstrate his "inborn" programmed talents. A voice-controlled system prompts Robbie into action. NO written requests, please. This …
Read More “1976 – “Robbie” the Robot – Tom Clayton (Australian)”