a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Source: Popular Science, Mar 1950 Mows Lawn by Radio—Pretty Soft! WHILE his robot lawn mower chugs around the lawn, Jim Walker, of Portland, Ore., takes it easy in his glider, sipping a cool drink and operating the radio controls. Walker, a radio ham, long-time builder of radio-controlled model planes, and president of a …
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Source: Mechanix Illustrated, Oct, 1938 (from blog.modernmechanix.com ) Builds Remote Control Lawn Mower Device Attaching two electric – motors, an old paint can, a wooden mixing bowl from a kitchen, sundry gears, wires and drive belts to a regulation lawn mower, Alvin Lodge, an unemployed mechanical engineer of Millersville, Pa., constructed a device that enables him …
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Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., produces its first patent for a "Self-Running Cleaning Apparatus" in 1990. Publication number US5109566 A . Also published as US5284522 Publication date May 5, 1992 Filing date Jun 28, 1990 Inventors Osamu Eguchi, Yasumichi Kobayashi, Shinji Kondoh, Haruo Terai, Hidetaka Yabuuchi Original Assignee Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Brand names are …
Read More “1990-2002 – Panasonic Vacuum Cleaning Robot – (Japanese)”
The "Little Dragon Carpet Sweeper" from the 1968 movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". The movie is set in 1910. The original contrivance is on show at Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum. Rowland Emett's 1968 sketch of the Little Dragon Carpet Sweeper. The "Little Dragon Carpet Cleaner" from 1968 This is a Machine no home …
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Computopia, a contraction of the words computer and Utopia, is a Japanese concept from the late 60s. This snippet of a robotic floor cleaner is from a set of great illustrations from the Japanese magazine Shonen Sunday who illustrated an article on the topic. Source and full set of illustrations here. See other early remote-controlled …
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