a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
1980-1 – Mark Fisher – Teacher – "The Wall" The Architects' journal: Volume 196, Issues 14-21 – 1992 The work of mechanical engineer Jonathan Park and architect Mark Fisher, who together form the rock set specialists Fisher Park. This pair met as teachers at the Architectural Association in 1976, a time of radical experimentation. Among …
Popular Science Jul 1985. Humanoid? Android? Robot? The terminology may not be well-defined, but in any event, Jon Barron, a British engineer, has dubbed his prototype anthropomorphic robot McAndroid the Android. Barron appears with his creation in the photo above. Although he figures that the market for the manlike machine will be the entertainment industry …
The inflatable hand first appears at The First Annual International Computer Art Exhibition – Cybernetic ARTRIP, Oct. 6-21th. 1973 at the Ginza SONY Salon. See Shiro Takahashi's website here. When trying to squash a balloon having a particular shape, it is necessary to apply unexpectedly large force, and even if forcibly trying to squash the …
Read More “1973 – “Babots” Balloon Robots – Shiro Takahashi (Japanese)”
"Psycho" at the Museum of Science, London. (Image source: Mechanical Toys – Charles Bartholomew) My intent in putting up this entry is to draw attention on the aspect of remote control by which the slave component is anthropomorphic. This fits in with the early history of teleoperators and manipulators. All other aspects of "Psycho" are well …
Read More “1875 “Psycho” the Whist-playing Automaton – Maskelyne & Clarke (British)”
Creeping Robot Activated Balloon (CRAB) – A clever Walking Beam model devised by Peter Holland. See pdf below for full instructions on how to build this novel walking model.