a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
A.H. Bruinsma Roboter Schaltungen Orig 1958 German edition, Eng translation 1965. Actually called “Cyber” (pronounced Seeber). These books are Philips publications, and I think Bruinsma worked for Philips. Notes: 1. Anne Hendrik Bruinsma is probably more well known for his work in Radio-control. (I previously thought Anne was a female name, but can be Male in …
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The model seen here is Dr. Andre (Andrew) John Angyan's first cybernetic model, Machine Reproducatrix, built in Budapest, Hungary. It very much follows the Grey Walter tortoise in terms of construction and function (of CORA – Machina Docilis). His later machines, constructed by Kretz with Zemanek, are the subject of a later post. Image is from …
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The Cybernetic section of the the Moscow Politechnical museum. You can see "Beta" in the centre. It is quite small in size. The other clear-plastic model was built for the museum and is the subject of another later post. There is a single drive motor, only driving the left-hand side wheel. The …
Read More “1957 – Cybernetic Tortoise “Beta” – Vasilyev and Petrovsky (Russian)”
In 1951 Marvin Minsky teamed with Dean Edmonds build the first artificial neural network that simulated a rat finding its way through a maze. They designed the first (40 neuron) neurocomputer, SNARC (Stochastic Neural Analog Reinforcement Computer), with synapses that adjusted their weights (measures of synaptic permeabilities) according to the success of performing a specified …
Read More “1951 – SNARC Maze Solver – Minsky / Edmonds (American)”
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 …
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