a history of cybernetic animals and early robots
Text below from Syd Mead's book SENTINEL The four-legged, gyro-balanced, walking cargo vehicle shown on pages 80-81 is from the US Steel Interface portfolio series [published in 1969 – see image below]. The environment is arctic and the mission is to deliver goods and critical supplies to an isolated exploratory colony beyond the DEWline. Like …
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Although referred to as the "Iron Mule Train", only one carriage was built for test purposes. I believe it was Frank Tinsley's original idea in extending Space General's original Moonwalker that inspired Morrison into promoting this third variant (the other being the Moonwalker disability walker after NASA's cancellation of the earlier unmanned moon rover programme.) …
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This demonstration model was remotely controlled by means of flexible cables: the operator used one limb to control each leg. The British firm W. H. Allen & Company, with A. C. Hutchinson and F. S. Smith, designed the first military related walking machine in 1940. The proposed armoured fighting machine in a partly engineered state. …
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1983 "Trojan Cockroach", a Six-Legged Hydraulic Walker by Ivan Sutherland. The Sutherland Walker was a six-legged all-terrain robotic designed by Sutherland Sproull Associates with the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University under contract to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The robot used a gasoline motor to power its legs and required a driver …
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Beginnings: The Times Record – 24 July 1962 p13 From as early as 1962, the General Electric Ordinance Dept. in Pittsfield, Mass., undertook a study for the US Army which may lead to the building of a manned walking machine, with arms and legs, ….. where tractors might get stuck. The mechanism for which the …
Read More “1969 – GE Walking Truck – Ralph Mosher (American)”