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Alan Turing proposes a test to determine whether or not a machine has gained the power to think for itself.
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American engineers George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot "arm," the world's first industrial robot.
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MIT researcher Heinrich Ernst develops the MH-1, a computer-operated mechanical hand.
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The Stanford Research Institute creates Shakey, the first mobile robot that can reason about its surroundings.
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The Japanese company Kawasaki develops the Kawasaki-Unimate 2000, the first industrial robot ever produced in Japan, with technology licensed from Unimation.
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Robot arms are used on the Viking 1 and 2 space probes.
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Austrian researcher Hans Moravec creates the Stanford Cart, an autonomous vehicle that can navigate across a room full of obstacles.
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LEGO collaborates with the MIT Media Lab to bring the first LEGObased educational products to market.
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The Pathfinder Mission lands on Mars. Its rover Sojourner, returns 2.3 billion bits of information, including more than 17,000 images, more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.
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The Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) is successfully launched into orbit and begins operations to complete assembly of the International Space Station.