The 1977 ERIC-II Remote Operated Vehicle. CABLE CONTROLLED DEEP SUBMERGENCE TELEOPERATOR SYSTEM Jean Vertut (CEA, Saclay, France) and Joel Charles (CERTSM, Toulon, France) ABSTRACT ERIC II, cable controlled deep submergence teleoperator system, is designed for remote observation, investigation and intervention from a surface ship, with a 6000 meters depth capability.…
"Working model of a table-clearing robot [Mk 2] designed to test the present-day feasibility of principles required for the house-working robot and other machines. The model has one 'sight' and two 'touch' sensors which enable the mechanical arm to pick up objects and place them on the rotating, clearing tray…
Early Automatic and Robotic Floor Cleaners 1899 - L'AN 2000 Floor Sweeper Prediction 1928 - Televox capable of switching appliances on and off 1940 – “Roll-Oh” the Domestic Robot 1949 - Tony Sale - George the Robot attempting Vacuuming 1955 - Sonic Broom 1957 - RCA/Whirlpool HECK and Automatic Floor Cleaner…
Stair-climbing wheels Wheels that shoot out spring-loaded "legs" enable an experimental British vehicle to climb stairs and other obstacles. The vehicle, powered by batteries, is the "miniclimber," developed by Prof. Meredith Thring and Brian Shayer at Queen Mary College, London University. The small machine travels at about three mph. On…
Source: How to Invent: M.W. Thring and E.R. Laithwaite, 1977. In the first stage of an attempt to make a powered artificial leg I analysed the essential mechanism of human walking and produced the device shown above which walks on two legs by bending the knee as the thigh begins…
USEFUL ROBOTS US Patent number: 3522859 - see here for full patent details. Filing date: Jan 22, 1968 Issue date: Aug 4, 1970 First filed in Great Britain 26 Jan 1967 Model of Centipede. The 'centipede' In the first model (Fig. 6.15(a) above) of the centipede the sprung legs were…
Thring, at Queen Mary College built a fire-fighting robot in 1962. This robot navigated its way round a "track" using signals from a gyro compass and measuring distance by wheel-rotation. It left the track when it "saw" a fire and extinguished the fire when its "finger" sensed the flame. The…
Not so well known is that there were two main types of R2-D2's in the original Star Wars space opera. The models operated by Kenny Baker, the other a radio-controlled (R/C) model. Visually the main difference is the Kenny Baker model only ever had two legs, and the R/C version…
This page will contain a timeline showing Pseudo Automata, Pseudo Robots, Fakes, and Robot Costumes. I've included this page in my overall blog as one comes across mechanical man and robots that are not what they are supposed to be. Rather than reject them all, I've listed them in their own…