The History of Robotics

The history of robotics started with Archimedes producing various mechanical inventions although not robots, these mechanics are still widely used within robotics. His invention of mathematics have also been strongly involved within technology. Fast-forward to the medieval period and preachers were creating automatons to impress followers and encourage allegiance to their faith. Leonardo Da Vinci is also said to of produced the first crude forms of robotics with a model that could sit-up, wave its arms and open it’s jaws. In 1937 the first metal, man shaped robot was produced, Called ELEKTRO. This robot could move and talk, it was even capable of smoking. This then led on to 1942 when the first rules of robotics were produced which were the following.

• A robot may not injure a human (or humanity), or, through inaction, allow a human (or humanity) to come to harm.

• Law Two: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law.

•  Law Three: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law.

Moving on, in 1954 George Devol designed the first truly programmable robot and called it UNIMATE for “Universal Automation. Later, in 1956, George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world’s first robot company “Unimation” which stands for “universal automation”. As a result, Engelberger has been called the ‘father of robotics’. Unimation is still in production today, with robots for sale.

In 1964 – WAP-1 became the first biped robot and was designed by Ichiro Kato. Air bags connected to the frame were used to stimulate artificial muscles WAP-3 was designed later and could walk on flat surfaces as well as climb up and down stairs or slopes. It could also turn while walking.

In 1966 the first incarnation of Alex was produced, ELIZA was one of the first of these, created by a professor at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory between the years 1964 and 1966.

In 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.

In 1985 the General Robotics Corp created the RB5X which was a programmable robot equipped with infrared sensors, remote audio/video transmission, bump sensors, and a voice synthesizer. It had software that could enable it to learn about its environment.

1986, The fist autonomous car took itself for a drive in 1986. The Mercedes-Benz van incorporated mirrors and sensors and was able to drive successfully on empty streets.

In 1997 IBM’s deep blue supercomputer beat the champion Gary Kasparov at a chess match. This represented the first time a machine beat a grand champion chess player.

In1999 Personal Robots released the Cye robot. It performed a variety of household chores, such as delivering mail, carrying dishes, and vacuuming. It was created by Probotics Inc.

In the year 2000, Sony unveiled the Sony Dream Robots (SDR) at Robodex. SDR was able to recognize 10 different faces, expresses emotion through speech and body language, and can walk on flat as well as irregular surfaces.

In 2002 Honda created 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.

On March 15 2016 AlphaGo, an AI system built by UK company DeepMind, defeated the world champion Lee Sedol at the ancient board game Go. This was a major milestone for DeepMind’s research into creating artificial intelligence that can ‘learn’ how to solve problems regardless of the context, unlike Deep Blue which is programmed for a specific use case.

On 2017, a newer version of AlphaGo, AlphaGo Zero, learned to play Go by itself in just three days after only being told the rules. Previous versions have learnt how to play the game by training themselves up on thousands of games played by professionals. However this version simply played itself over and over millions of times, starting by placing the stones on the board at random but quickly learning winning strategies. This is exciting because it indicates that AI can create knowledge on its own with very little human direction.