1986c – “Herbert” the Collection Machine – Brooks, Connell, Ning (American)

Herbert – A Soda Can collecting robot (named after the AI pioneer Herbert Simon). In mobile robot research we believe the structure of the platform, its capabilities, the choice of sensors, their capabilities, and the choice of processors, both onboard and offboard, greatly constrains the direction of research activity centered on the platform. We examine …

1980-1 – “SUPERKIM Meets ET-2” – D. F. McAllister (American)

Extract from 1980's article: The articles present experiences in interfacing and programming a SUPERKIM single board computer for the control of a Lour Control ET-2 robot shell. The ET-2 (Experimental Transmobile with 2 drive motors) consist of a three level frame powered by two separately driven wheels and balanced by a free caster. Part 2 …

1977 – “HILARE” Autonomous Mobile Robot – French

"HILARE" An acronym of "Heuristiques Intégrées aux Logiciels et aux Automatisms dans un Robot Évolutif". Designed in 1977 at the Laboratoire d'Automatique et d'Analyse des Systèmes du C.N.R.S Toulouse, (LAAS), it is the first French autonomous mobile robot equipped with ultrasound sensors and laser telemetry. My friend David Buckley with HILARE, to give a comparison …

1978 – Queen Mary College Mark IV Mobile Robot – Mark Witkowski & Dave Mott (British)

The QMW Mk. IV Mobile Research Robot The final version (Mk. 4) of our first attempts at a mobile robot for machine learning research. It had a somewhat unusual (and not entirely satisfactory) drive layout with wheels at the front of the vehicle. D.C. motor drive was complemented with gray-code shaft encoders. Forward facing sensors …

1980-82 – ROBART-I Sentry Robot – H. R. Everett (American)

Text and some images sourced from here – http://www.spawar.navy.mil/robots/land/robart/robart.html This link also contains other links to ROBART information, not covered here. ROBART-I was Bart Everett‘s thesis project at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.  and one of the very first behavior-based autonomous robots ever built. The navigation scheme provided a layered hierarchy of behaviors …