a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
**Stop Press** – See Daniel Muszka with his Ladybird at the Robots Festival Nov 30-Dec 31 2011 Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, London, SW7 2DD The Science Museum's 'Robots Festival' begins with a five-day 'Roboville' event showcasing the latest in robotic research and development – including emotibots, swimming shark robots, medical robots and autonomous moving robots. During …
Ivan Sutherland with M. Versatilis. Source: Carnegie Mellon University Archives Machina Versatilis , pictured above and below, was so named due to the versatile modular plug-in boards. M. Versatilis was the final of three models built, and at least two of this model were supposedly built. The first version, see blog post here, was originally built in …
Read More “1957 – Machina Versatilis – Ivan Sutherland (American)”
The Ducrocq family of cybernetic animals were named “Miso” These were designated M-1 through to M-5. Some articles refer to “le renard” (French for fox) as “Job” (M-5). M-1 in most cases was referred to as Miso. It probably became M-1 when M-2 was built. So far, I have seen pictures of 6 different Miso’s. …
Read More “1951-54 – Miso, Barbara, Cesare, Felapton, Job – Albert Ducrocq (French)”
Who is Ivan E. Sutherland? Ivan was born in 1938, Nebraska, USA and is a computer pioneer, inventing Sketchpad, being the first what we now call a Graphical User Interface (GUI). He also built a walking machine, but that will be the subject to another post later. As an under-graduate student, Ivan, with his elder brother …
Read More “W. Grey Walter, Edmund C. Berkeley, Ivan E. Sutherland and the Tortoise”
This is what everyone’s been waiting for – new and more detailed information on “Philidog” by Henri Piraux (sometimes Henry Piraux, of Philips France). One of the articles to be presented tells us that the dog has gone through a bit of an evolution. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to get a date of the original incarnation. …
Read More “1928 – Phil the Radio Dog a.k.a. “Philidog” – Henri Piraux (French)”