a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Feb 1, 1967 …….. He [Professor Meredith Wooldridge Thring, 51, professor of mechanical engineering at London's Queen Mary College] suggested a trip to one of his laboratories. "Here you see our mechanical rat," he explained. He pointed to a gadget about the size of a boy's electric train. Before it lay a …
Read More “1966 – Mechanical Rat – Meredith Thring (British)”
Anthony Deutsch, aged 26, with his maze runner from Oxford University's Institute of Experimental Psychology. The head-lamp on the trolley is turned on, and various photo-electric cells are mounted at strategic points in the maze. Deutsch's Maze runner was considered the most sophisticated at the time. It was capable of transferring its training from one maze …
Read More “1954 – Maze-Solving Machine – J. A. Deutsch (British)”
A Radio Controlled, Reversible, Steam Powered Christmas Pudding Is "the Pud" an earlier form of the "Crabfu" type of machine?
This demonstration model was remotely controlled by means of flexible cables: the operator used one limb to control each leg. The British firm W. H. Allen & Company, with A. C. Hutchinson and F. S. Smith, designed the first military related walking machine in 1940. The proposed armoured fighting machine in a partly engineered state. …
Read More “1940 – Walking SuperTank – Hutchinson and Smith (British)”
SERVO 01.2004 Vintage Anthony Ellis, Conceptioneer (inventor / product developer, www.appliedmachineintelligence.co.uk) is the trailblazing roboticist behind our first modern robot from the past. If you're new to robotics, or haven't kept up with news from across the pond, you probably haven't heard of this "vintage" robot. Meet Anthony Ellis' 23-year-old creation, appropriately named Vintage. Vintage came …
Read More “1979 – “Vintage the Robot” – Tony Ellis (British)”