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428 BCE
First robot in the world: A steam powered bird: A flying antiquity
This machine claims to be the first known robot to mankind. -
270 BCE
The first clock in the world
An ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures. The idea was that the time could be measured with water. -
77 BCE
The Antikythera Device: An ancient computer
The device is a complex mix of gears which most likely calculated the position of the sun, moon or other celestial bodies. -
May 10, 1495
The first humanoid robot?
Leonardo da Vinci had designed what is thought to be the first humanoid robot ever. The robot was designed to sit up, wave its arms, and move its head via a flexible neck while opening and closing its jaw. The robot was never actually produced but this was a huge idea back in 1495 -
A living duck:
This mechanical device could flap its wings, eat, and digest grain. Each wing contained over four hundred moving parts and even today it remains something of a mystery. The original Duck has disappeared, but it is still a mystery to how it would do all of those things. Some parallels can be drawn to modern day robots which mimic humans, -
Elmer and Elsie
W. Grey Walter created his first robots; Elmer and Elsie, also known as the turtle robots. The robots were capable of finding their charging station when their battery power ran low. This technology could have inspired our modern day robot vacuum-cleaners -
Kenji Urada - the first person killed by a robot
While working on a broken robot, he failed to turn it off completely, resulting in the robot pushing him into a grinding machine with its hydraulic arm. He died as a result. This could teach us not to trust robots blindly. -
LEGO making its way into the robotics scene
LEGO released their MINDSTORMS robotic development product line,which is a system for inventing robots using a coder and LEGO plastic bricks. This could help young coders to get into coding and creating their own robots. -
The Atlas: A robot made for walking
Atlas is a robot used to navigate through outdoor terrain that is dangerous and difficult to get through. Atlas can walk bipedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry, and manipulate the environment. In extremely challenging terrain, Atlas is strong and coordinated enough to climb using hands and feet, to pick its way through congested spaces. -
An early designer
Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a machine that could be programmed to create designs that could be printed onto cloth or tissue. Of course it was simple images but we imagine it laid the groundwork of our modern day prints on t-shirts.
