a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Masha being used in some force-feedback experiments. The experiment here to feed a cylinder into an inclined funnel. See Devjanin-Schneider paper here. The above three images show experimentation by Gorinevsky. His paper is available here. Gorinevsky produced a video of the walking machine. After many media transformations, the quality is poor. See here.  The …
Read More “1976 – “Masha” Hexapod – Gurfinkel et al (Soviet)”
Diagram from Bessonov's and Umnov's paper. As seen at the Russian Polytechnic Museum in Moscow. Abstract from Bessonov's and Umnov's 1983 paper. This paper shows that in the task of the maintenance of constant orientation of the body of a walking robot the determination of the actual position of the body, i.e. absolute altitudes of its …
Read More “1983 – Six-Legged Walking Machine – Bessonov (Russian)”
Nicholas Yagn, of St.Petersburg, Russia, designed a set of walking, jumping, and running assisted apparatus from 1889-1890. An earlier version used a giant bow spring. The final version used compressed gas bags to store the energy. An example of a passive and human-powered exoskeleton . Patent number: 440684 Filing date: Feb 11, 1890 Issue date: Nov 1890 See …
Read More “1890 – Assisted-walking Device – Nicholas Yagn (Russian)”
Maze currently found in Polytechnic Museum of Science and Technology , Moscow. Cybernetic model "Mouse in the maze" (see video clip here) [Thanks Joseba Arruabarrena as the video clip is now on youtube.] One of the first developments in the field of cybernetics in the Soviet Union. Modeling ability to learn the simplest living creature …
Read More “1955-57 – Maze Solver – M. Gavrilova (Ðœ.Ð.Гаврилова) (Russian)”
VADIM MATSKEVICH Entertaining ANATOMY OF ROBOTS Published by the Radio and Communication ", 1988 CYBERNETIC TOY program-controlled Fig. 82 depicts a funny puppy who goes merrily wagging his tail, barks, turning his head left and right, stopping, looking around, and then again with the barking continues to move. He constructed a young technician Muscovite Myasum …
Read More “1988c – Cybernetic Dog – Myasum Alyautdinov (Russian)”