Written By John Bradley
Archytas of Tarentum, a pal of Plato’s, built a mechanical bird driven by a jet of steam or compressed air—arguably history’s first robot—in the fifth century B.C.
“Robot” comes from the Czech word robota, meaning“drudgery,” and first appeared in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). The drama ends badly when the machines rise up and kill their creators, leaving a sole lonely survivor.
The first known case of robot homicide occurred in 1981, when a robotic arm crushed a Japanese Kawasaki factory worker.
More than a million industrial robots are now in use, nearly half of them in Japan.
Leonardo da Vinci drew up plans for an armored humanoid machine in 1495.
The United States’ military corps of 4,000 robots includes reconnaissance Talon bots that scout for roadside bombs in Iraq and PackBots that poked around for Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Afghanistan.
PackBot’s manufacturer, iRobot, has also sold more than 2 million Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, with the same environment-sensing technology.
Elektro, the world’s first humanoid robot, debuted in1939. Built by Westinghouse, the seven-foot-tall walking machine“spoke” more than 700 words stored on 78-rpm records to simulate conversation. Elektro later appeared in the 1960 B movie Sex Kittens Go to College.
Chris Melhuish of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory created robots that use bacteria-filled fuel cells to produce electricity from rotten apples and dead flies. The goal: robots that forage for their own food.
Before modern robots, there were automatons, which were moving machines driven by clockwork, air, or water rather than electricity or computers.
George Devol created the first digitally operated and programmable robot in 1954. Named Unimate, this robot laid the foundation for the modern robotics industry. Devol is largely responsible for the programmable robotic arm that is seen in industry.
The word “robot” is from the Czech word “robota,” which means “forced labour.”
