a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Hobby Electronics magazine (November 1979-January 1980) describes an autonomous robot. HEBOT is a free roaming robot which can negotiate obstacles, steer towards a light (infra red) and follow a wire (A.C. current) around your home. HEBOT emits a squeak when it detects light or following a collision. Control is transferred to the wire following circuitry …
Read More “1979-80 HEBOT I, II & III – John FitzGerald (British)”
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)”
"Bensina" arrived in Sweden in August 1952. It arrived with Karl Nelles, one of Frank Stuart's elephant drivers. See here for the full Frank Stuart Mechanical Elephant stories. DAGENS NYHETER Onsdo Eq 9 / Elefant „Döp Stockholms nya elefant Barnavårdsdirektör Otto Wangson, längst t. v., bland barnen. ungdomskonsulent Axel Brandt och f. d. tyske krigsfången …
Read More “1952-67 – “Bensina” the Frank Stuart Elephant in Sweden – Frank Stuart (British)”
The QMW Mk. IV Mobile Research Robot The final version (Mk. 4) of our first attempts at a mobile robot for machine learning research. It had a somewhat unusual (and not entirely satisfactory) drive layout with wheels at the front of the vehicle. D.C. motor drive was complemented with gray-code shaft encoders. Forward facing sensors …
Read More “1978 – Queen Mary College Mark IV Mobile Robot – Mark Witkowski & Dave Mott (British)”