Making the transition from Science Fiction to Science Fact… With amazing speed we’ve moved from simple automated machines to robots that simulate laughter, conversation, and friendship. The pace of robot evolution is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is here, ladies and gentlemen.
At the convergence of technology, communication, engineering, and computing, robots are becoming humankind’s most powerful tool. But robots are NOT a new innovation. Not even close. As robots evolve and we come ever closer to AI “singularity,” I think it’s important to reflect a minute or two on robot history (so we don’t BECOME history)…
- 1400 BCE: Babylonians develop the clepsydra, a clock that measures time using the flow of water. It’s considered one of the first “robotic” devices in history. For centuries, inventors will refine the design.
- The first robot was a steam-powered “pigeon,” created around 400 to 350 BCE by the ancient Greek mathematician Archytas, known as the father of engineering. He was using the robot to study birds in flight.
- 322 BCE: The Greek philosopher Aristotle imagines the great utility of robots, writing, “If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”
- c. 270 BCE: Ctesibius, a Greek physicist and inventor makes organs and water clocks with movable figures.
- Around 1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a humanoid robot.
- The first android in the Western World, a completely mechanical figure which simulated a living human or animal, operating with apparently responsive action, is believed to have been constructed in 1525 by Hans Bullmann (?-1535) of Nuremberg, Germany.
- 1540: A mandolin-playing lady is created by Italian inventor Gianello Torriano. The height of the Lute Player automaton (see the lower image) is 44 cm. Though no longer able to actually function, it is said to move with small tripping steps, strumming the lute with its right hand, and turning its head from right to left. It can advance in a straight line, or follow the path of a circle.
- 1769: Hungarian author and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen builds “The Turk,” a maplewood box with a mannequin, dressed in cloak and turban, protruding from the back. The device gains great fame as an automaton capable of playing chess against skilled opponents–until it is discovered that a human operator hides inside the box.
- 1772: Swiss inventors Pierre and Henri Jacquet-Droz build a robotic child called L’Ecrivain (The Writer). It could write messages with up to 40 characters. L’Ecrivain’s brain was a mechanical computer. A piano-playing robotic woman is also built at this time.
- 1801: Joseph Jacquard invents a textile machine called a programmable loom. It is operated by punch cards.
- Between 1700 and 1900 a number of life-sized automatons were created during this time, including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson that could crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food.
- 1890’s: Nikola Tesla designs the first remote control vehicles.
- 1892: In the United States, Seward Babbitt designs a motorized crane with gripper to remove ingots from a furnace.
- 1913: Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes.
- 1920: Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play called Rossums Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by the robots that once served them. This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, ie Frankenstein, Terminator, The Matrix etc.
- 1926: Film director Fritz Lang releases Metropolis, a silent film set in a futuristic urban dystopia. It features a female robot–the first to appear on the silver screen-who takes the shape of a human woman in order to destroy a labor movement.
- 1932: The first true robot toy was produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ was a wind-up toy which walked. It was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall.
- 1937: Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer revolution.
- 1938: Americans Willard Pollard and Harold Roselund design a programmable paint-spraying mechanism for the DeVilbiss Company.
- 1939: Elektro, built by Westinghouse, was the first humanoid robot (standing at 7 feet tall and able to “speak” 700 words).
- 1940’s: Grey Walters creates an early robot called Elsie the tortoise, or Machina speculatrix.
- 1941: Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first uses the word “robotics” to describe the technology of robots and predicts the rise of a powerful robot industry.
- 1941: Legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes the short story ‘Liar!’ in which he describes the Three Laws of Robotics. His stories were recompiled into the volume “I, Robot” in 1950 – later reproduced as a movie starring Will Smith.
- Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: (1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. (2) A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. (3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
- 1946: American scientists J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly build the first large electronic computer called the Eniac at the University Pennsylvania. The second computer, the Whirlwind, solves a problem at M.I.T. The Whirlwind is the first general-purpose digital computer.
- 1948: Norbert Wiener, a professor at M.I.T., publishes his book, Cybernetics, which describes the concept of communications and control in electronic, mechanical, and biological systems.
- 1950: Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test a machine must be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. It has become known as the ‘Turing Test.’
- 1951: A teleoperator-equipped articulated arm is designed by Raymond Goertz for the Atomic Energy Commission
- 1954: George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later became the first industrial robot (the Unimate), completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly line at General Motors (1962).
- In 1956 George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world’s first robot company.
- 1957: The Soviet Union launches ‘Sputnik’, the first artificial orbiting satellite. This marks the beginning of the space race.
- 1959: Computer-assisted manufacturing was demonstrated at the Servomechanisms Lab at MIT. Planet Corporation markets the first commercially available robot.
- An article in Cyberneticzoo describes how back in the early 1960’s General Motors created a factory robot to repeatedly move pieces of hot metal.
- 1960’s: Johns Hopkins creates “the beast.” It is controlled by hundreds of transistors and able to seek out photocell outlets when its battery runs low.
- 1960: The General Electric Walking Truck was a 3,000 pound, four-legged robot that could walk four miles an hour. It was powered by a computer. Ralph Moser developed the machine.
- 1963: The first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed. The Rancho Arm was designed as a tool for the handicapped and its six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm.
- 1964: Artificial intelligence research laboratories are opened at M.I.T., Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Stanford University, and the University of Edinburgh.
- 1964: The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced. ***CORRECTION (dated 6/29/2017): The IBM 650 was 1953, commonly referred to as the world’s first mass-produced computer. Thank you @_Casper2017 for the insight. Reference article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_650
- 1968: The octopus-like Tentacle Arm was developed by Marvin Minsky.
- 1968: Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark’s, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that develops a mind of its own.
- 1969: The U.S. successfully use the latest in computing, robotic and space technology to land Neil Armstrong on the moon.
- 1970: Shakey was introduced as the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence. SRI International in California produced this small box on wheels that used memory to solve problems and navigate.
- 1970: At Stanford University a robot arm is developed which becomes a standard for research projects. The arm is electrically powered and becomes known as the Stanford Arm.
- 1970’s: Scientists at Edinburgh University create the Freddy robot, taking steps in hand-eye coordination technology. This first assembly robot constructed a toy boat and car from a heap of mixed parts tipped onto a table.
- 1973: The first commercially available minicomputer-controlled industrial robot is developed by Richard Hohn for Cincinnati Milacron Corporation. The robot is called the T3, The Tomorrow Tool.
- 1976: Robot arms are used on Viking 1 and 2 space probes. Vicarm Inc. incorporates a microcomputer into the Vicarm design.
- 1977: The first Star Wars movie is released. George Lucas‘s movie inspires a new generation of researchers through his image of a human future shared with robots such as the now famous R2-D2 and C-3PO.
- 1978: Vicarm, Unimation creates the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) robot with support from General Motors. Many research labs still use this assembly robot.
- 1980 – present is known as the “Robotic Age.”
- 1981: The first robot homicide… in a Japanese factory a worker was crushed by a robotic arm. An accident?
- 1983: The Remote Reconnaissance Vehicle became the first vehicle to enter the basement of Three Mile Island after a meltdown in March 1979. This vehicle worked four years to survey and clean up the flooded basement.
- 1984: The Terregator pioneered exploration, road following and mine mapping. It was the world’s first rugged, capable, autonomous outdoor navigation robot.
- 1985: REX was the world’s first autonomous digging machine. It sensed and planned to excavate without damaging buried gas pipes. This robot used a hypersonic air knife to erode soil around pipes.
- 1986: The first LEGO based educational products are put on the market and Honda launches a project to build a walking humanoid robot.
- 1989: Developed by Kato Corporation, the WL12RIII was the first biped walking robot which was able to walk on a terrain stabilized by trunk motion. It could walk up and down stairs and could take a single step every 0.64 seconds.
- 1992: NavLab II was the automated HUMMER that pioneered trinocular vision, WARP computing, and sensor fusion to navigate off-road terrain.
- 1993: Demeter autonomously mows hay and alphalpa. It navigates with GPS and uses camera vision to differentiate cut and uncut crops.
- 1994: Carnegie University’s eight-legged walking robot, Dante ll, successfully descends into Mt Spur to collect volcanic gas samples.
- 1997: On May 11, a computer built by IBM known as Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov.
- 1997: The first Robocup tournament is held in Japan. The goal of Robocup is to have a fully automated team of robots beat the worlds best soccer team by the year 2050.
- 1997: NASA’s PathFinder lands on Mars and the Sojourner rover robot captures images.
- 1998: LEGO launches its first Robotics Inventions System.
- A fuzzy, batlike robot called Furby becomes the must-have toy of the holiday season. The $30 toys “evolve” over time, first speaking in gibberish but soon developing the use of preprogrammed English phrases. More than 27 million of the toys sell in a 12-month period.
- 1998: Dr. Cynthia created Kismet, a robotic creature that interacted emotionally with people.
- 1998: Campbell Aird was fitted with the first bionic arm called the Edinburg Modular Arm System (EMAS).
- 1999: Sony releases the first version of AIBO, a robotic dog with the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with its owner. More advanced versions have followed.
- 2000: Honda debuts ASIMO, the next generation in its series of humanoid robots. Sony Dream Robots (SDR) and the Aibo robot dog are showcased.
- 2002: Roomba, the roving automated vacuum cleaner are produced.
- 2004: Epsom releases the smallest known robot, standing 7cm high and weighing just 10 grams. The robot helicopter is intended to be used as a ‘flying camera’ during natural disasters.
- 2004: The humanoid, Robosapien is created by US robotics physicist and BEAM expert, Dr. Mark W Tilden.
- 2005: Researchers at Cornell University build the first self-replicating robot. Each ‘robot’ is made up of a small tower of computerized cubes which link together through the use of magnets.
- The paper “Robots That Can Adapt Like Animals,” published in Nature, 2015, shows the Intelligent Trial and Error Algorithm.
- 2008: After being first introduced in 2002, the popular Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner has sold over 2.5 million units, proving that there is a strong demand for this type of domestic robotic technology.
- 2012: Google’s Driverless Car prototypes came out, equipped with sensors, cameras, radar systems, and computer systems.
- The cute yellow Keepon robot from Carnegie Mellon University has shown the ability to facilitate social interactions with autistic children.
- Robot comes from the Czech word “robota” which means “forced work or labor.”
- Nanobots are robots scaled down to microscopic size in order to put them into very small spaces to perform a function. For example, nanobots could be placed in the blood stream to perform surgical procedures that are too delicate or too difficult for standard surgery. Another application: Nanobots could fight bacteria by tracking down and eliminating each bacterial cell or could repair individual organ cells in the body.
- Chris Melhuish of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory created robots that use bacteria-filled fuel cells to produce electricity from rotten apples and dead flies. The goal: robots that forage for their own food.
- Australian researchers are trying to build a microrobot that would mimic the swim stroke used by E. coli bacteria.It would be injected into a patient so it could take a biopsy from the inside.
- Half of the robots in the world live in Japan, the “epicenter of technology.”
- By 2040, Robots will emerge as their own species (according to Hans Moravec, founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute).