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Jan 1, 1495
Da Vinci's Mechanical Knight
Leonardo sketches some plans for a humanoid mechanical knight. It was designed to be able to move fluidly in combat. -
18th Century: automaton toys
Miniature automatons became popular as toys for the children of the very rich. -
Three laws of robotics are written
According to Issac Asimov, the Three laws are as follows:
"1. A robot may not injure a human (or humanity or, through inaction, allow a human (or humanity) to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law". -
First programmable robot created
George Devol designed a programmable robot, called UNIMATE (Universal Automation) . Later on, along with Joseph Engelberger, he formed the world's first robot company, "unimation". Engelberger is called the 'father the robotics' -
First artificial, autonomous satellite created
Sputnik I changed the face of robotics forever when it was launched. It was 22.8 inches in diameter and weighed 183.9 pounds. -
Carnegie Mellon
The Robotics Institute is established by Carnegie Mellon. -
First biped robot created
It was called WAP-1. Designed by Ichiro Kato, it had air bags connected to the frame to act as muscles. Later, WAP 3 was created and could walk and climb slopes or stairs. -
Stanford Arm
Victor Sheinman made the Stanford Arm, which at the time was the first successful robotic arm which was electrically powered and controlled by computers. -
Shiegeo Hirose- Titan II
Created by Shiegeo Hirose, it is a quadruped that can climb chairs. Afterwards, a successor of Titan II was created, called Titan III. -
WL12RIII
This was the first biped robot that could walk on terrain such as stairs was created by Kato Corporation. It could take one step every .64 seconds. -
NASA'S Pathfinder
NASA's Pathfinder lands on Mars, which then sent some images and data about it back to Earth. It returned 2.3 million bits of information, including 16,500 images. -
IBM's Deep Blue
IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer beat the chess champion Gary Kasparov. This was the first time a machine had beaten a grand champion chess player. -
Robot fish created
Mitibushi creates the robotic fish. Their purpose in creating this was to create a robotic version of an extinct fish. -
iRobot
The company iRobot releases the first generation of Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners for common use in the home. It has multi-room navigation and can adapt to changes in the real world such as furniture change. -
Sophia the Robot is created
In 2016, Sophia the robot was created. She is capable of many human expressions, and looks very lifelike. She admits she wants to have a family and children, and when asked, replies, "I will destroy humans". She is dubbed the "most beautiful Robot" by Hanson Robotics.