a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
The Budapest Robot at the International Fair 1937. Above image source: Robots: Facts, Fiction and Prediction. I haven't been able to find any relevant text to this robot, but it appears to be able to detect an audience (via photo-electric cells in its eyes?), stand using motors in the base guided by the geometry of …
circa 1935: Two women with Mac the Mechanical Man the radio-controlled robot invented by Leighton Hilbert. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) [Note: I don’t think Mac is radio-controlled, but there is certainly is a visual suggestion of being remotely controlled via a umbilical cord and a control box. Most likely part of the illusion. Mac is …
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A photograph of a robot exhibited as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for Selfridges department store in London, taken by Edward Malindine for the Daily Herald newspaper on 13 March 1934. See other early Humanoid Robots here.
It appears as if Yasutaro Mitsui's Steel Humanoid robot is the first known Japanese robot in humanoid form. With the post author not being able to read nor write in Japanese, it makes it difficult to research. The image also appears in Haruki Inoue's 1993 book Nihon Robotto Soseiki 1920-1938. I suspect the electrical devices and valves …
Read More “1930c – Steel Humanoid Robot – Yasutaro Mitsui (Japanese)”
Rupert I – 1928 Rupert was built as a mechanical representation of major organs of a human. The Popular Science [Apr 1929] article suggests it was built by British schoolboys. Rupert II – 1929 (re-modelled innards) from Popular Science Apr 1929 p58 Boys Build "Human Engine" in Study of Anatomy USING two furnaces for the stomach. …