What is a robot?

• A machine that looks like a human being and performs similar actions.
• An automatic apparatus that preforms functions normally performed by a human being.
• A machine that operates independently with human or near-human intelligence.
• A programmable mechanism able to respond to its environment according to its program.
• A person not exhibiting human emotions and feelings

Robots in history

The concept of the artificially created man goes back at least as far as ancient Greece. The mythic Greek god Hephaestus (Vulcan) created two living golden female statues. The story of the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a female statue granted life by the gods, is cut from the same cloth. Perhaps these legends tell us more about the difficulties of acquiring a girl friend in ancient Greece than about Grecian tecnology, but Greek legend also tells of the bronze warrior Talos and soldiers created from planting dragon's teeth.

During the 13th century the legend of the golem, an artificial creature made from clay, was created. The golem was activated by placing a manuscript with certain holy words in its mouth (or writing the words on its forehead, depending upon the version of the legend) and deactivated by removing the manuscript.

Prior to the industrial revolution, artificial organisms were usually animated by magical forces, but as humanity developed mechanical skills and discovered the principles of electricity, tales of artificial creatures began to rely more on mechanism than magic as the animating principal. Automatons (animated human or animal figures) began appearing in the 18th century, but were very expensive and affordable only by royalty or very rich families. Mechanical computers and mechanical controllers were developed in the 19th century, but the arrival of the modern concept of the robot, as well as the coining of the word "robot", awaited the advent of 20th Century.

Here are some highlights the development of robots and robotic concepts.

Robot Timeline

~ 350 B.C.
Greek mathematician, Archytas ('ahr 'ky tuhs') of Tarentum constructs "the Pigeon", a mechanical bird propelled by steam. It is one of the earliest recorded studies of flight. (And the first model airplane?)

~ 322 B.C.
Greek philosopher Aristotle offered an early expression of the role of robots: "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."

~ 200 B.C.
Greek inventor and physicist Ctesibus ('ti sib ee uhs') of Alexandria designs water clocks incorporating movable figures. Water clocks are a big breakthrough for timepieces. (Up until then the Greeks used hour glasses that had to be turned over after all the sand ran through. Ctesibus' invention changed this because it measured time as a result of the force of water falling through it at a constant rate. In general, the Greeks were fascinated with automata of all kinds often using them in theater productions and religious ceremonies.)

~ 100 B.C.
Hero of Alexandria (Greek) designs pressure operated mechanisms to automatically open and close temple doors. It was something of a Rube Goldberg design, employing heated air forcing water into a suspended bucket which pulled on ropes wrapped around rotating cylinders attached to the door hinges. Weights caused the doors to close as water drained from the bucket.

1350
Mechanical rooster installed atop cathedral in Strasbourg, France. Each day at noon the rooster flaps its wings and (silently) crows. It is operated by a series of rods and levers controlled from a clock mechanism.

1495
Leonardo DaVinci designs a mechanical device that looks like an armored knight. The mechanisms inside "Leonardo's robot" are designed to make the knight move as if there was a real person inside. Inventors in medieval times often built machines like "Leonardo's robot" to amuse royalty.

1738
Jacques de Vaucanson begins building automata in Grenoble, France. He builds three in all. His first was the flute player that could play twelve songs. This was closely followed by his second automaton that played a flute and a drum or tambourine, but by far his third was the most famous of them all. The duck was an example of Vaucanson's attempt at what he called "moving anatomy", or modeling human or animal anatomy with mechanics." The duck moved, quacked, flapped it's wings and even ate and digested food.

1745
Edmund Lee (England) demonstrates principle of "feedback" to keep a windmill constantly pointed correctly into the wind.

1769
"The Turk", a chess-playing automaton, is created by Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen. Actually operated by a very short person concealed in the device, "The Turk" deceived most of the people to whom it was displayed. HOwever, it's notoriety did much to spread the concept of a mechanical man with a mechanical brain.

1770
Swiss clock makers and inventors of the modern wristwatch Pierre Jaquet-Droz and later joined by his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz start making automata for European royalty. They create three dolls, each with a unique function. One can write, another plays music, and the third draws pictures.

1801
Joseph Jacquard builds an automated loom that is controlled with punched cards. Punch cards are later used as an input method for some of the 20th centuries earliest computers.

1818
Mary Shelley writes the novel . Frankenstein's monster is organic, not mechanical, and created great interest in the concept of artificial life. (The modern term for an artificial, organic human is "android", which has been broadened in its definition to mean "an automaton or robot in human form".)

1822
Charles Babbage demonstrates a prototype of his "Difference Engine" to the Royal Astronomical Society. He continues his work by designing an even more ambitious project "the Analytical Engine" that reportedly was to use punch cards inspired by Joseph Jacquard's invention. During his lifetime he never produces a functional version of either machine. Despite this shortcoming he is often heralded as the "Father of the Computer" and his work lives on as the foundation for the binary numbering system that is the basis of modern computers.

1847
George Boole represents logic in mathematical form with his Boolean Algebra.

1890
Herman Hollerith develops punched card memory and tabulating system for U.S. Census

1898
Nikola Tesla builds and demonstrates a remote controlled robot boat at Madison Square Garden.

1907
Tik-Tok, a clockwork robot, appears as a character in Frank L. Baum's Ozma of Oz, part of an immensely successful series of fantasy novels enjoyed both by children and adults.

1921
Czech writer Karel Capek introduced the word "Robot" in his play R.U.R (Rossuum's Universal Robots). "Robot" in Czech comes from the word "robota", meaning "compulsory labor"

1926
Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis is released. "Maria", the female robot in the film, is the first robot to be projected on the silver screen. Much of the atmosphere in modern science fiction and horror films can be traced back to Metropolis

1936
Alan Turing introduces the concept of a theoretical computer called the Turing Machine. Despite being a fundamental advance in computer logic it also spawns new schools in Mathematics.

1939
Elektro and Sparky, robot man and dog, appear in the Westinghouse booth at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

1940
Isaac Asimov produces a series of short stories about robots starting with A Strange Playfellow (later renamed Robbie) for Super Science Stories magazine. The story is about a robot and its affection for a child it is required to protect. Over the next 10 years Asimov produces more stories about robots that are eventually recompiled into the volume I, Robot in 1950.

Asimov is generally credited with the popularization of the term "Robotics" which was first mentioned in his story Runaround in 1942. But probably Issac Asimov's most important contribution to the history of the robot is the creation of his 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 the orders given 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
George Devol patents a playback device for controlling machines.

1950
Alan Turing publishes Computing Machinery and Intelligence in which he proposes a test to determine whether or not a machine has gained the power to think for itself. It becomes known as the "Turing Test".

1951
The Day the Earth Stood Still premieres in theaters. The movie features an alien named Klaatu and his companion robot Gort.

1956
Alan Newell and Herbert Simon create the Logic Theorist, the first "expert system". It is used to help solve difficult math problems.

Aided by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Nat Rochester and Claude Shannon organize The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence at Dartmouth College. The term "artificial intelligence" is coined as a result of this conference.

Robby the Robot stars in the movie Forbidden Planet. Unlike the forbidding and hostile robots of many previous films and books, Robby is a helpful friend and a major influence on toys, literature and films in years to follow. Robby also has a genuine, if ironic, sense of humor.

1959
John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky start the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

1961
Heinrich Ernst develops the MH-1, a computer operated mechanical hand at MIT.

1962
The first industrial arm robot - the Unimate - is introduced. It is designed to complete repetitive or dangerous tasks on a General Motors assembly line.

1963
John McCarthy leaves MIT to start the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University.

1966
The Stanford Research Institute (later to be known as SRI Technology) creates Shakey the first mobile robot to know and react to its own actions. Amongst other achievements SRI was also the research institute that helped bring us modern day laundry detergent in the development of Tide.

An artificial intelligence program named ELIZA is created at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum. ELIZA functions as a computer psychologist that manipulates its users statements to form questions. Weizenbaum is disturbed at how quickly people put faith in his little program.

1967
Richard Greenblatt writes, MacHack, a program that plays chess, in response to a recent article written by Hurbert Dreyfus where he suggests, as a critique to efforts in artificial intelligence, that a computer program could never beat him in a game of chess. When the program is finished and Dreyfus is invited to play the computer he leads for most of the game but ultimately loses in the end in a close match. Greenblatt's program would be the foundation for many future chess programs, ultimately culminating in Big Blue the chess program that beats chess Grand Master Gary Kasparov.

1968
Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that decides it doesn't need its human counterparts any longer.

1969
Victor Scheinman, a Mechanical Engineering student working in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) creates the Stanford Arm. The arm's design becomes a standard and is still influencing the design of robot arms today.

1970
Stanford University produces the Stanford Cart. It is designed to be a line follower but can also be controlled from a computer via radio link.

1971
The film Silent Running is released starring Bruce Dern. Bruce's co-stars are three robot drones: Huey, Dewey and Louie.

1974
Victor Scheinman forms his own company and starts marketing the Silver Arm. It is capable of assembling small parts together using touch sensors.

1976
Shigeo Hirose designs the Soft Gripper at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is designed to wrap around an object in snake like fashion.

1977
Star Wars is released. George Lucas' movie about a universe governed by the force introduces watchers to R2-D2 and C-3PO. The movie creates the strongest image of a human future with robots since the 1960's and inspires a generation of researchers.

Deep space explorers Voyagers 1 and 2 launch from the Kennedy Space Flight Center.

1979
The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is established.

The Stanford Cart is rebuilt by Hans Moravec. He adds a more robust vision system allowing greater autonomy. These are some of the first experiments with 3D environment mapping.

1980
Seymour Papert publishes Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas where he advocates constructionism, or learning through doing.

1981
Takeo Kanade builds the direct drive arm. It is the first to have motors installed directly into the joints of the arm. This change makes it faster and much more accurate than previous robotic arms.

1982
"A new life awaits you on the Off-World colonies." Blade Runner is released. This Ridley Scott film is based on the Philip K. Dick story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and starred Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard a retired Blade Runner that hunted Replicants (or illegal mutinous androids).

1986
LEGO and the MIT Media Lab colaborate to bring the first LEGO based educational products to market. LEGO tc Logo is used by in the classrooms of thousands of elementary school teachers.

Honda begins a robot research program thats starts with the premise that the robot "should coexist and cooperate with human beings, by doing what a person cannot do and by cultivating a new dimension in mobility to ultimately benefit society."

1989
A walking robot named Genghis is unveiled by the Mobile Robots Group at MIT. It becomes known for the way it walks, popularly referred to as the "Genghis gait".

At MIT Rodney Brooks and A. M. Flynn publish the paper "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: A Robot Invasion of the Solar System" in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. The paper changes rover research from building the one, big, expensive robot to building lots of little cheap ones. The paper also makes the idea of building a robot somewhat more accessible to the average person.

Dr. Seymour Papert becomes the LEGO Professor of Learning Research.

1990
iRobot founded by participants in the Mobile Robots group from MIT. The company is the manufacturer of the Roomba Vacuum Cleaner Robot.

1992
In an attempt to build a radio controlled vaccuum cleaner Marc Thorpe has the idea to start a robot combat event.

Dr. John Adler came up with the concept of the CyberKnife, a robot that images the patient with x-rays to look for a tumor and delivers a pre-planned dose of radiation to the tumor when found.

1993
Dante an 8-legged walking robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University descends into Mt. Erebrus, Antarctica. Its mission is to collect data from a harsh environment similar to what we might find on another planet. The mission fails when, after a short 20 foot decent, Dante's tether snaps dropping it into the crater.

1994
Dante II, a more robust version of its predicessor, descends into the crater of Alaskan volcano Mt. Spurr. The mission is considered a success.

Marc Thorpe starts Robot Wars at Fort Mason center in San Francsico, CA.

1995
The second annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.

1996
A RoboTuna is designed and built by David Barrett for his doctoral thesis at MIT. It is used to study the way fish swim.

Chris Campbell and Stuart Wilkinson turn a brewing accident into inspiration at the University of South Florida. The result is the Gastrobot, a robot that digests organic mass to produce carbon dioxide that is then used for power. They call their creation the "flatulence engine."

Honda debuts the P3, the fruit of its decade long effort to build a humanoid robot.

The third annual Robot Wars event is held at Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA.

1997
The first node of the International Space Station is placed in orbit. Over the next several years more components will join it, including a robotic arm designed by Canadian company MD Robotics.

The Pathfinder Mission lands on Mars. Its robotic rover Sojourner, rolls down a ramp and onto Martian soil in early July. It continues to broadcast data from the Martian surface until September.

1998
Tiger Electronics introduces the Furby into the Christmas toy market. It quickly becomes "the toy" to get for the season. Using a variety of sensors this "animatronic pet" can react to its environment and communicate using over 800 phrases in English and their own language "Furbish".

LEGO releases their first Robotics Invention SystemTM 1.0. LEGO names the product line MINDSTORMS after Seymour Papert's seminal work of 1980.

1999
LEGO releases The Robotics Discovery Set, Droid Developer Kit and the Robotics Invention System 1.5.

SONY releases the AIBO robotic pet.

2000
Honda debuts new humanoid robot ASIMO.

The Battlebots event is held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention SystemTM 2.0

2001
LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Ultimate Builder's Set

In August, the FDA clears the CyberKnife to treat tumors anywhere in the body.

2002
Honda's ASIMO robot rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

iRobot introduces the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. Over 1.5 million have been sold as of early 2006.

2003
June 10th - NASA launches the MER-A "Spirit" rover destined for Mars. July 7th - NASA launches the MER-B "Opportunity".

SONY releases the AIBO ERS-7 it's 3rd generation robotic pet.

2004
Jan. 4th - After six minutes of holding our breath (during EDL) as it burned and bounced its way to the red planet the robot rover Spirit lands on Mars.

Jan. 23rd - The second Mars Exploration Rover - "Opportunity" safely lands on the Meridium Planum.