Robotics Timeline By mattid 200 Water Clocks are invented 350 First ever robot Jan 1, 1898 Tesla demonstrates a remote controlled robot Jan 1, 1946 George Devol patents a playback device for controlling machines. Jan 1, 1966 ELIZA is created Jan 1, 1968 Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. Nov 21, 1977 Star Wars is released. Jan 1, 1981 Takeo Kanade builds the direct drive arm. Jan 1, 1993 Dante an 8-legged walking robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University Jan 1, 1997 The Pathfinder Mission land on Mars. Jan 1, 1998 LEGO releases the MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention SystemTM 2.0 Jan 1, 1999 SONY releases the AIBO ERS-7 Jan 1, 2000 Honda builds Asimo