AMS Team BEAST - Robotics | Robotics History

AMS Team BEAST - Robotics | Robotics History

An index explaining how robotics evolved over the years

By Nehal Patel

  • -250

    250 B.C.

    Ctesibius of Alexandria made organs and water clocks with movable figures. His clock was used until the 17th century.

  • 1495

    1495

    Leonardo da Vinci designed and possibly made the first humanoid robot. It was capable of sitting up, waving its arms, and moving its head via a flexible neck while opening and closing its jaw.

  • 1738

    1738

    Jacques de Vaucanson made several automations: a flute player, a flute, a drum player, and a duck which could quack, flap its wings, and eat.

  • 1773

    1773

    Pierre and Henry Louis Jaquet-Droz invented the first automation that could write.

  • 1801

    1801

    Joseph Jacquard invented a textile machine which is operated by punch cards.

  • 1810

    1810

    Fridrich Kaufmann created the mechanical trumpetteer. It contained a notched drum which activated valves that let air pass through twelve tongues.

  • 1865

    1865

    John Brainerd created the Steam Man apparently used to pull things.

  • 1885

    1885

    Frank Reade Jr. built the Electric Man which is more-or-less an electric version of the Steam Man.

  • 1893

    1893

    Dr. Achibald Campion builds the Boilerplate which is a prototype soldier.

  • 1897

    1897

    Nikola Tesla created a remote-controlled submersible boat.

  • 1937

    1937

    Westinghouse created ELEKTRO, a human-like robot that could walk, talk, and smoke.

  • 1942

    1942

    Willard Pollard and Harold Roselund made the first programmable paint-spraying mechanism for the DeVilbiss Company.

  • 1946

    1946

    George Devol patented a general purpose playback device for controlling machines using magnetic recordings.

  • 1948

    1948

    W. Grey Walter created Elmer and Elsie, also known as the turtle robots. The robots were capable of finding their charging station when their battery power ran low.

  • 1951

    1951

    Raymond Goertz designed the first tele-operated articulated arm for the Atomic Energy Commission.

  • 1954

    1954

    George Devol designed the first programmable robot called the "Universal Automation," or "Unimate."

  • 1959

    1959

    MIT's Servomechanisms Lab demonstratesd computer-assisted manufacturing; the machine produced an ashtray for each attendee.

  • 1960

    1960

    Harry Johnson and Veljko Milenkovic from American Machine and Foundry (AMF Corp.) marketed the first cylindrical robot called the Versatran.

  • 1961

    1961

    UNIMATE become the first industrial robot in use. It was used at the General Motors factory in New Jersey.

  • 1961

    1961

    The Johns Hopkins University's applied physics lab created its "Beast". It was build with dozens of transistors, and when its batteries ran low it would seek black wall outlets and put itself in.

  • 1963

    1963

    Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Downey, California created the Rancho Arm, the first computer controlled artificial robotic arm. It was designed as a tool for the handicapped.

  • 1965

    1965

    A team at Stanford lead by Ed Feigenbaum created the first expert system, DENDRAL, which was designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of experts.

  • 1965

    1965

    Victor Scheinman and Larry Leifer developed an air-powered robot arm called Orm, which is the Norwegian word for snake.

  • 1968

    1968

    Marvin Minsky created the Tentacle Arm, which was capable of lifting a person.

  • 1968

    1968

    Mcgee and Frank at the University of South Carolina created the first computer controlled walking machine.

  • 1968

    1968

    R. Mosher created the first manually controlled walking truck. It could walk up to four miles an hour.

  • 1969

    1969

    Victor Scheinman created the Stanford Arm, which was the first successful electrically-powered, computer-controlled robot arm.

  • 1969

    1969

    Ichiro Kato created the WAP-1, which was the first biped robot. Computers were used to stimulate artificial muscles connected to the frame.

  • 1970

    1970

    SRI International created Shakey, the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence.

  • 1972

    1972

    Ichiro Kato designed the WAP-3, which could walk on flat surface as well as descend and ascend a staircase or slope. It could also turn while walking.

  • 1972

    1972

    Dr. Rikscha, Dr. Lensky, Dr. Stilman, Prof. Devjanin, and collegues at the Mechanics Moscow Lomonossov State University created a walking robot.

  • 1973

    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

    1973

    V.S. Gurfinkel, A. Shneider, E.V. Gurfinkel and collegues at the department of motion control at the Russian Academy of Science created a six-legged walking vehicle.

  • 1973

    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

    1974

    David Silver created the Silver Arm. It assembled small parts using feedback from touch and pressure sensors.

  • 1975

    1975

    Victor Schenman developed the Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm (Puma). It is widely used in industrial robots.

  • 1976

    1976

    Shigeo Hirose from the Tokyo Institute of Technology created the Soft Gripper. It conformed to the shape of the grasped object.

  • 1977

    1977

    Dr. Devjanin, Dr. Grufinkelt, Dr. Lensky, Dr. Schneider, and collegues at the Russian academy of Science created Variante Masha, a six-legged walking machine.

  • 1977

    1977

    McGhee at Ohio State University unveiled the OSU hexapod; it weighed 136kg.

  • 1978

    1978

    Shigeo Hirose created ACMVI (Oblix) robot. It had snake-like abilities. The Oblix eventually became the MOGURA robot arm used in industry.

  • 1979

    1979

    The Standford Cart crossed a chair-filled room without human assistance.

  • 1979

    1979

    Hiroshi Makino of Yamanashi University designed 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

    1980

    Robert Quinn and Roy Ritzmann at Case Western Reserve University created a six-legged robotic insect.

  • 1980

    1980

    Quasi-dynamic walking was first realized by WL-9DR. It used a micro-computer as the controller. 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

    1981

    Shigeo Hirose developed Titan II. It is a quadruped which could climb stairs.

  • 1982

    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

    1983

    Ichiro Kata built the WL-10R, which 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

    1983

    Southerland and Sproull finished the CMU Hexapod. The machine was 2.4m long and could reach speeds of 0.11m/s.

  • 1983

    1983

    Odetics Inc. unveiled a six-legged walking robot called Odex 1.

  • 1984

    1984

    Isao Shimoyama and Hirofumi Miura at the University of Tokyo created the Biper-4, which required ski-like feet to remain standing.

  • 1984

    1984

    Ichiro Kato created WABOT II, which read music and played an electronic organ.

  • 1984

    1984

    Jessica Hodgins and Marc Raibert created Biped. It reached a maximum speed of 1.5 to 4.1 m/s. It had four degrees of freedom.

  • 1985

    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

    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

    1985

    Created by the General Robotics Corp., the RB5X was a programmable robot. It had infrared sensors, remote audio/video transmission, bump sensors, and a voice synthesizer. It had software that could enable it to learn about its environment.

  • 1985

    1985

    Waseda Hitachi Leg-11 (WHL-11) was 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

    1985

    H. Miura at the University of Tokyo created Colliel, a four legged walking machine. It had 12 degrees of freedom.

  • 1985

    1985

    The Melwalk3 was developed at Namiki Tsukuba Science City. It was a six-legged walking machine that weighed 35 kg.

  • 1985

    1985

    OstRover was built in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was a six-legged walking machine that weighed 500kg.

  • 1988

    1988

    The first HelpMate robot goes to work at Danbury Hospital in Conneticut.

  • 1989

    1989

    The Mobile Robots Group at MIT create Genghis, a walking robot.

  • 1989

    1989

    Aquarobot was created at the Robotics Laboratory at the Ministry of Transport in Japan.

  • 1989

    1989

    Robotics Corp. created Attila II, a four-legged machine. It weighed 1.5kg and could carry a load of about 150g.

  • 1989

    1989

    Developed by Kato, the WL12RIII was the first biped walking robot 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

    1990

    Dr. William Bargar and Howard Pual of Integrated Surgical Systems Inc. and the University of California at Davis developed the Robodoc. It performed a hip-replacement operation on a dog (1992 on a human patient).

  • 1993

    1993

    Dante explored Mt. Erebrus, Antarctica. The 8-legged walking robot was developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. However, the mission failed when its tether broke.

  • 1994

    1994

    Dante II explored Mt. Spurr, Alaska. It was a more robust version of Dante.

  • 1996

    1996

    RoboTuna was created by David Barrett at MIT. The robot was used to study how fish swim.

  • 1996

    1996

    Honda created P2, the first major step in creating their ASIMO. P2 is the first self-regulating, bipedal humanoid robot.

  • 1997

    1997

    NASA's PathFinder landed on Mars. It was a robotic rover that sent images and data about Mars back to Earth, while it roamed the planet.

  • 1997

    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

    1997

    Honda created P3, the second major step in creating their ASIMO. P3 was the first completely independent bipedal humanoid walking robot.

  • 1998

    1998

    Tiger electronics created the FURBY. This robot was a pet toy which communicated with its owner. It used a variety of sensors to react with its environment.

  • 1998

    1998

    Dr. Cynthia created Kismet, a robotic creature that socially interacted with people. It used cues from the person it interacted with as a basis for its interaction.

  • 1998

    1998

    LEGO released their MINDSTORMS product line, which was a system for inventing robots.

  • 1998

    1998

    Campbell Aird is fitted with the first bionic arm called the Edinburg Modular Arm System (EMAS).

  • 1999

    1999

    Sony released the first AIBO electronic dog.

  • 1999

    1999

    Mitsubishi created a robot fish. The intention was 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

    1999

    Personal Robots released the Cye robot. It performed a variety of household chores, such as deliver mail, carry dishes, and vacuum. It was created by Probotics Inc.

  • 2000

    2000

    Sony unveiled humanoid robots: the Sony Dream Robots (SDR) at Robodex. SDR was able to recognize 10 different faces, express emotion through speech and body language, and walk on flat as well as irregular surfaces.

  • 2001

    2001

    MD Robotics of Canada built 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

    2001

    Omron released their cat, NeCoRo, as a competitor to Sony's AIBO. It came with Mind and Consciousness (MaC) technology, which enabled the cat to generate feelings.

  • 2002

    2002

    Honda created the Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO). It was intended to be a personal assistant. It recognized its owner's face, voice, and name. It can read email and is capable of streaming video from its camera to a PC.

  • 2005

    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.

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