a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Wireless World, December 1972 Free Roving Machine by M.. F. Huber, B.Sc. A device which will "explore" a room and by finding and tracing the path of a length of tape laid on the floor, return to a charger at intervals to recharge its batteries A number of years ago, Dr. Grey Walter first demonstrated …
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Emily – The Robot with a One Track Mind by Bernard Dickman Popular Electronics March 1962 The strange-looking object following the white line is named "Emily." She may look like a dishpan with eyes, but this "Electro-Mechanical Inebriated Ladybug" is actually an electronic robot of the simplest type. Though equipped with only one "sense organ" …
Read More “1962 – “Emily” the White-line Follower – Bernard Dickman (American)”
JASON, a robot built by students in the EE Dept. at University of California, Berkeley. They include L. Stephen Coles, Michael H. Smith, Alan M. Robb, Paul L. Sinclair, and Ralph R. Sobek. The robot is equipped with a number of infrared proximity sensors and a radio link to its remote computer controller. Its onboard …
Read More “1971-4 – JASON a low-cost mobile robot – L. Stephen Coles, Michael H. Smith (American)”
Unicorn-One ( Universal Controllable Robot ) is truly universal and a robot that you can build for between two- and-four hundred dollars, depending on your ingenuity and scrounging abilities. It is fully mobile and has the ability to use its arms and hands. It can be controlled by a cable link to a console, by …
Read More “1980-1 – Unicorn-1 – James A. Gupton, Jr. (American)”
Creep Mk-2 – 1962 A radio controlled programmable robot with an arm and gripper, designed by T R Bridge, Radio Control Models & Electronics April 1962. Creep was programmable by recording, on a tape recorder, the control tones then playing back the tones and feeding them into the transmitter (see text in pdf below). The …