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Beep Boop Bop: A brief history of robots, Part I

13 of 14 NEXT PREV
  • The living machine

    The living machine

    From the start, robots seemed to signify a breathing of actual life into that which is inanimate. Before robots were useful machines, a development that occurred in the latter half of the 20th century, they were seen as more than mechanical, as devices that should be respected and even feared.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Rossum's Universal Robots

    Rossum's Universal Robots

    The word robot comes from Czech writer Karel Čapek, who first used it in his 1920 play Rossum's Universal Robots. The play features a kind of biological entity built in a factory, not born.

    The root from which the word derives is robota, a Czech/Slavic term meaning the work done by a peasant for a feudal lord. In Čapek's play, that's exactly what robots do: They work for humans. At least, that's what they do at first. Eventually, the robots in the play rebel against their creators and destroy humanity. Whoops.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Hephaestus, patron god of mechanical engineers

    Hephaestus, patron god of mechanical engineers

    In the Iliad, Hephaestus, who might be called the patron god of mechanical engineers, created mechanical three-legged tables and bronze statues that served as assistants.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Talos

    Talos

    Hephaestus also made Talos, a bronze giant charged by Zeus with protecting Europa from would-be kidnappers.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Antikythera mechanism

    Antikythera mechanism

    The first device that might, with some stretch, passably be called a robot was an ancient Greek analog computer made of enmeshing bronze gears. Given the right inputs, the device accurately operated on its own to predict astronomical locations. It was an early indication of what has since become an inextricable link between robots and computers.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Su Song’s Clock

    Su Song’s Clock

    In 1088, Chinese polymath Su Song built a 30-foot clock tower that contained elaborate clockwork mannequins that danced and spun.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Al-Jazari’s water-powered automata

    Al-Jazari’s water-powered automata

    Al-Jazari, a 12th century Muslim inventor, built several water-powered musical automata, including a quartet of autonomous musicians who played instruments while floating on a lake.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Leonardo Da Vinci’s robot

    Leonardo Da Vinci’s robot

    As the Renaissance took hold in Europe, automatic machines became even more complex and lifelike. Leonardo da Vinci, with his rich understanding of human anatomy, wrote up plans (and may have built) a humanoid in the form of an armored Knight that could sit up and wave its arms.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Digesting Duck

    Digesting Duck

    French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson ran with the idea and became the toast of Paris in the early 1730s when he debuted his Digesting Duck, an automaton in the form of a duck that ate kernels and appeared to digest them.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Automata

    Automata

    In 1780, inventor Abbot Mical of St. Petersburg created a conversation machine, which consisted of two mechanical heads on a pedestal that conversed with one another by passing air through artificial vocal cords. There are myriad examples around this time of automata that sip tea, play instruments, and perform complex dances.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Rage against the machine

    Rage against the machine

    The popular culture pendulum would soon swing as the Enlightenment's optimism gave way to a new distrust of machines. The industrial revolution kept workers in factories, where they seemed to serve machines. The turn of the century also saw the dawn of mechanical warfare. Machines, no longer just marvels of amusement, became instruments of suppression and death in some corners of the collective imagination.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Tesla's remote control boat

    Tesla's remote control boat

    In 1898, Nikola Tesla debuted a remote control boat in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Coming on the heels of a guide-by-wire torpedo invented by Thomas Edison, robots were beginning to be viewed as potential weapons that could be sent from afar and were capable of extraordinary destructive power.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Elektro, Westinghouse's Moto-Man

    Elektro, Westinghouse's Moto-Man

    The interwar period gave rise to glamorous and gimmicky PR stunts involving robots. The most famous of these was Elektro, the Westinghouse Moto-Man, an imposing humanoid that could shuffle forward and chain-smoked cigarettes.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

  • Next up: Robots in the post-war period

    Next up: Robots in the post-war period

    Prior to WWII, robots delighted and frightened. But it wasn't until the post-war period, when industry was booming in the US and a culture of productivity and technological optimism took hold, that modern robots were born and began to do real work.

    Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

    Photo by: D J;My Toy Museum

    Caption by: Greg Nichols

13 of 14 NEXT PREV
Greg Nichols

By Greg Nichols for Robotics | September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT) | Topic: Robotics

  • The living machine
  • Rossum's Universal Robots
  • Hephaestus, patron god of mechanical engineers
  • Talos
  • Antikythera mechanism
  • Su Song’s Clock
  • Al-Jazari’s water-powered automata
  • Leonardo Da Vinci’s robot
  • Digesting Duck
  • Automata
  • Rage against the machine
  • Tesla's remote control boat
  • Elektro, Westinghouse's Moto-Man
  • Next up: Robots in the post-war period

Derided as abominations or celebrated as ingenious feats of human engineering, robots have been around longer than you think.

Read More Read Less

Elektro, Westinghouse's Moto-Man

The interwar period gave rise to glamorous and gimmicky PR stunts involving robots. The most famous of these was Elektro, the Westinghouse Moto-Man, an imposing humanoid that could shuffle forward and chain-smoked cigarettes.

Published: September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT)

Caption by: Greg Nichols

13 of 14 NEXT PREV

Related Topics:

CXO Innovation Artificial Intelligence
Greg Nichols

By Greg Nichols for Robotics | September 5, 2018 -- 19:30 GMT (12:30 PDT) | Topic: Robotics

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