History of Robotics

Robotic Timeline

250 B.C.		Ctesibius of Alexandria builds organs and water clocks with movable figures.
1495		Leonardo da Vinci designed and possibly built the first humanoid robot. The robot was designed to sit up, wave its arms, and move its head via a flexible neck while opening and closing its jaw.
1738		Jacques de Vaucanson builds several automata; flute player, flute and drum player, and a duck. The duck is pictured here and it could quack, flap its wings, and eat.
1773		Pierre and Henry Louis Jaquet-Droz invented the first automaton that could write.
1801		Joseph Jacquard invents a textile machine which is operated by punch cards. (Image from Smithosonian NMAH)
1810		Fridrich Kaufmann creates the mechanical trumpetteer. It contains a notched drum which activates valves that lets air pass through twelve tongues.
1865		John Brainerd creates the Steam Man apparently used to pull things.
1885		Frank Reade Jr. built the Electric Man which is more-or-less an electric version of the Steam Man.
1897		Nikola Tesla created a remote-controlled submersible boat.
1893		Dr. Achibald Campion builds the Boilerplate which is a prototype soldier.
1937/38		Westinghouse creates ELEKTRO a human-like robot that could walk, talk, and smoke.
1942		The first programmable paint-spraying mechanism designed by Willard Pollard and Harold Roselund for the DeVilbiss Company. (US Patent No. 2,286,571).
1946		George Devol patents a general purpose playback device for controlling machines using magnetic recordings.
1948/49		W. Grey Walter creates his first robots; Elmer and Elsie known as the turtle robots. The robots were capable of finding their charging station when their battery power ran low.
1951		Raymond Goertz designs the first tele-operated articulated arm for the Atomic Energy Commission. This is generally regarded as a major milestone in force feedback technology. (US Patent 2679940)
1954		George Devol designs the first programmable robot and calls it the "Universal Automation." (US patent 2 998 237)
1959		MIT's Servomechanisms Lab demonstrates computer-assisted manufacturing, the machine produced an ashtray (pictured here) for each attendee.
1960		American Machine and Foundry (AMF Corp.) markets the first cylindrical robot called the Versatran. It was designed by Harry Johnson and Veljko Milenkovic.
1961		UNIMATE becomes the first industrial robot in use. It was used at the General Motors factory in New Jersey.
1961		The Johns Hopkins University's applied physics lab creates its &quto;Beast"e;. It was build with dozens of transitors, and when its batteries ran low it would seek black wall outlets and plut itself in.
1963		The Rancho Arm is created and is the first computer controlled artificial robotic arm, it was designed as a tool for the handicapped. It was developed at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey, California.
1965		The first expert system, DENDRAL, was created by a team at Stanford. The team was lead by Ed Feigenbaum. The robot was designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of experts.
1965		Victor Scheinman and Larry Leifer develop an air-powered robot arm called Orm. Orm is the Norwegian word for snake.
1966	Try Eliza	Joseph Weizenbaum wrote the famous Eliza program. The program simulates a psychoanalyst by rephrasing many of the users questions.
1968		Marvin Minsky creates the Tentacle Arm. The tentacle arm was capable of lifting a person.
1968		The first computer controlled walking machine created by Mcgee and Frank at the University of South Carolina.
1968		The first manual controlled walking truck made by R. Mosher. It could walk up to four miles an hour.
1969		Victor Scheinman creates the Stanford Arm, which was the first successful electrically-powered, computer-controlled robot arm.
1969		WAP-1 is the first biped robot designed by Ichiro Kato. Computers were used to stimulate artificial muscles connected to the frame.
1970		SRI International creates Shakey the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence.
1972		WAP-3 designed by Ichiro Kato could walk on flat surface as well as descend and ascend a staircase or slope. It could also turn while walking.
1972		Dr. Rikscha, Dr. Lensky, Dr. Stilman, Prof. Devjanin, and collegues at the Mechanics Moscow Lomonossov State University create a walking robot.
1973		Edinburgh University's robot FREDDY was built, work began on FREDDY in 1966 but was interrupted due to funding. FREDDY could assemble wooden toys.
1973		V.S. Gurfinkel, A. Shneider, E.V. Gurfinkel and collegues at the department of motion control at the Russian Academy of Science create a six-legged walking vehicle.
1973		Ichiro Kato created WABOT I which was the first full-scale anthropomorphic robot in the world. It had a system for controlling limbs, vision, and conversation! It was estimated that it had the mental ability of a 18 month old child.
1974		The Silver Arm is created by David Silver. It assembled small-part using feedback from touch and pressure sensors.
1975		Victor Schenman develops the Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm (Puma). It is widely used in industrial robots.
1976		Shigeo Hirose from the Tokyo Institute of Technology creates the Soft Gripper. It conformed to the shape of the grasped object.
1977		The Variante Masha, a six-legged walking machine, is created at the Russian academy of Science by Dr. Devjanin, Dr. Grufinkelt, Dr. Lensky, Dr. Schneider, and collegues.
1977		McGhee at Ohio State University unveils the OSU hexapod, it weighed 136kg.
1978		Shigeo Hirose created ACMVI (Oblix) robot. It had snake-like abilities. The Oblix eventually became the MOGURA robot arm used in industry.
1979		The Standford Card crossed a chair-filled room without human assistance.
1979		Hiroshi Makino of Yamanashi University designs the Selective Compliant Articulated Robot Arm (SCARA) for assembly jobs in factories. They are very common in pick-and-place, assembly, and packaging aplications.
1980		Robert Quinn and Roy Ritzmann at Case Western Reserve University create a six-legged robotic insect.
1980		Quasi-dynamic walking was first realized by WL-9DR. It used a micro-computer as the controler. It could take one step every 10 seconds. It was developed by Ichiro Kato at the Department of Mechanical Engineering School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo.
1981		Shigeo Hirose develope Titan II. It is a quadruped which could climb stairs. Picture is of Titan III, which is a successof of Titan II.
1982		The Heathkit Corporation designed Hero Jr. It was intented to be a home companion. It had an alarm clock, and it could sing several songs. Additional programs were stored on 250 cartridges.
1983		Ichiro Kata builds the WL-10R, it had more degrees of freedom then its predessor. It could walk laterally, turning and walking forward as well as backward. It could take a step every 4.4 seconds.
1983		Southerland and Sproull finish the CMU Hexapod. The machine is 2.4m long and can reach speeds of 0.11m/s.
1983		Odetics Inc. unveils a six-legged walking robot called Odex 1.
1984		Biper-4 is desigend by Isao Shimoyama and Hirofumi Miura at the Univeristy of Tokyo. It required ski-like feet to remain standing.
1984		Ichiro Kato created WABOT II that reads music and plays an electronic organ.
1984		Jessica Hodgins and Marc Raibert create Biped. It reaches a maximim speed of 1.5 to 4.1 m/s. It had four degrees of freedom.
1985		Shigeo Hirose continued work with the TITAN, in 1985 he completed TITAN IV which could walk at a velocity of 40 cm/sec.
1985		The Omnibot 2000, a toy robot, is created by the Tomy Kyogo Company Inc. It was controlled by a hand-held remote control or through programs stored on magnetic tape.
1985		Created by the General Robotics Corp. the RB5X was a programmable robot. It had infrared sensors, romote audio/video transmission, bump sensors, and a voice synthesizer. It had software that could enable it to learn about its environment.
1985		Waseda Hitachi Leg-11 (WHL-11) is a biped robot developed by Hitachi Ltd. It was capable of static walking on a flat surface. It was able to turn and could take a step every 13 seconds.
1985		A four legged walking machine, Collie1, was developed by H. Miura at the University of Tokyo. Themahcine had 12 degress of freedom.
1985		The Melwalk3 was developed at Namiki Tsukuba Science City. It was a six-legged walking machine that weighed 35 kg.
1985		OstRover was built in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was a six-legged walking machine that weighed 500kg.
1988		The first HelpMate robot goes to work at Danbury Hospital in Conneticut.
1989		The Mobile Robots Group at MIT create Genghis, a walking robot.
1989		Aquarobot was createdd at the Robotics Laboratory at the Ministry of Transport in Japan.
1989		Robotics Corp. creates Attila II, a four-legged machine. It weighed 1.5kg and could arry a load of about 150g.
1989		Developed by Kato the WL12RIII was the first biped walking robt which was able to walk on a terrain stabilized by trunk motion. It could walk at a rate of 2.6 seconds, up and down stairs. This robot could take a single step every 0.64 seconds.
1990		Dr. William Bargar and Howard Pual of Integrated Surgical Systems Inc. and the University of California at Davis develop the Robodoc. It performs a hip-replacement operation on a dog (1992 on a human patient).
1993		Dante explores Mt. Erebrus, Antarctica. The 8-legged walking roobt was developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. However, the mission fails when its tether breaks.
1994		Dante II explores Mt. Spurr, Alaska. This is a more robost version of Dante.
1996		RoboTuna is created by David Barrett at MIT. The robot is used to study how fish swim.
1996		Honda creates P2, the first major step in creating their ASIMO. P2 is the first self-regulating, bipedal humanoid robot.
1997		NASA's PathFinder lands on Mars. It is a robotic rover that sends images and data about Mars back to Earth, while it roams the planet.
1997		IBM's deep blue (an RS/6000 with special modules) beats Gary Kasparov at a chess match. The first time a machine wins against a great chess player.
1997		Honda creates P3, the second major step in creating their ASIMO. P3 is the first completely indpendent bipedal humanoid walking robot.
1998		Tiger electionics creates the FURBY. This robot is a pet toy which communicates with its owner. It uses a variety of sensors to react to its environment.
1998		Dr. Cynthia creates Kismet, a robotic creature that socially interacts with people. It uses cues from the person it interacts with as a basis for its interaction.
1998		LEGO releases their MINDSTORMS product line, which is a system for inventing robots.
1998		Campbell Aird, is fitted with the first bionic arm called the Edinburg Modular Arm System (EMAS).
1999		Sony releases the first Aibo electronic dog.
1999		Mitsubish creates a robot fish. The intention is to create robotic fish of species of fish that are extinct. They hope that there are spin-off research from this project for submarines.
1999		Personal Robots releases the Cye robot. It performed a vairety of household chores, such as deliver mail, carry dishes, and vacuum. It was created by Probotics Inc.
2000		Sony unveils humanoid robots, the Sony Dream Robots (SDR) at Robodex. SDR is able to recognize 10 different faces, expresses emotion through speech and body language, and can walk on flat as well as irregular surfaces. Image of QRIO
2001		MD Robotics of Canada builds the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS). It was successfully launched and has begun operations to complete the assembly of the International Space Station.
2001		Omron releases their cat, NeCoRo, as a competitor to Sony's Aibo. It comes with Mind and Consciousness (MaC) technology, which enables the cat to generate feelings.
2002		Honda creates the Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO). It is intended to be a personal assistant. It recognizes its owner's face, voice, and name. Can read email and is capable of streaming video from its camera to a PC.
2005		The Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), creates HUBO, and claims it is the smartest robot in the world. This robot is linked to a computer via a high-speed wireless connection, the computer does all of the thinking for the robot.