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history of robots
Greek philosopher Aristotle made this famous quote:
“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.” -
1495
history of robots
Around 1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a humanoid robot. -
history of robots
Between 1700 and 1900 a number of life-sized automatons were created including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques de Vaucanson that could crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food. -
history of robots
Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes. -
history of robots
Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play called Rossum's Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by the robots that once served them.
This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, Frankenstein, Terminator, The Matrix etc. -
history of robots
The first true robot toy was produced in Japan. The ‘Lilliput’ was a wind-up toy which walked. It was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall. -
history of robots
Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer revolution. -
history of robots
Legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov writes the short story ‘Liar!’ in which he describes the Three Laws of Robotics. His stories were recompiled into the volume “I, Robot” in 1950 – later reproduced as a movie starring Will Smith.
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: -
history of robots
Alan Turing proposes a test to determine if a machine truly has the power to think for itself. To pass the test a machine must be indistinguishable from a human during conversation. It has become known as the ‘Turing Test’. -
history of robots
George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later became the first industrial robot, completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly line at General Motors (1962). -
history of robots
The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced. -
history of robots
Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an onboard computer that develops a mind of its own.