Technology

By taylah_rae

  • The Word "Android" is entered the the Chambers Cyclopædia

    The word "android" is entered in the Chambers Cyclopædia recording German philosopher and alchemist Albertus Magnus’ (c1200-1280) attempts to create an “androides “. (An automaton resembling a human being. artificial being.).

  • Automated Loom

    Joseph Jacquard builds an automated loom that is controlled with punched cards. Punch cards are later used as an input method for some of the 20th century’s earliest computers.

  • First Remote Control Vehicle

    Nikolai Tesla demonstrates the first remote-controlled vehicle. The remote-control boat could be commanded to go, stop, turn left and right, turn its lights on and off, and even submerge. The public was not impressed. Press reports spoke of “mind control”, which didn't help Tesla's scientific reputation.

  • Word Robot is used for the first time

    The word ROBOT is used for the first time in the context of mechanical people in a play called "R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots)” by Czech dramatist Karel Capek. These are intelligent machines meant to serve their human makers. But the play ends dramatic as robots took over the world and destroyed humanity. Capek called these powerful beings "Robota" meaning “slave or forced labour”. He distinguishes the robot from man by the absence of emotion.

  • Laws of Robotics

    Issac Asimov is generally credited with the popularization of the term "Robotics" which was first mentioned in his story "Runaround" in 1942. His most important contribution to the history of the robot is the creation of his “Laws of Robotics”.

  • First General-purpose computer solves it's first problem

    First presentation of the concept of a stored program (John von Neumann) and generic re-programmability of computers.
    The first general-purpose digital computer, dubbed Whirlwind, solves its first problem at M.I.T.

  • Transistor Invented

    The transistor is invented by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain.

  • First "Turtle" Robots

    British robotics pioneer William Grey Walter creates autonomous machines called Elmer and Elsie that mimic life-like behaviour with very simple circuitry. These are the first “turtle” robots.

  • Robot Arm

    George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot "arm". This development led to the development of the first industrial robot “UNIMATE” in 1961.

  • First Industrial Robot Installed

    The first industrial robot (UNIMATE) is installed in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. The assembly line robot is controlled step-by-step by commands stored on a magnetic drum; the 4,000-pound arm sequenced and stacked hot pieces of die-cast metal.

  • Standford Research Institute

    Shakey created at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). It is the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence. Equipped with sensing devices driven by a problem-solving program called STRIPS, the robot could find its way around by applying information about its environment to a route. Shakey used a TV camera, laser range finder, and bump sensors to collect data, which it then transmitted to a DEC PDP-10 and PDP-15. The computer radioed back commands to Shakey — who moved at 2m/h

  • Star Wars is released

    George Lucas' movie introduces viewers to R2D2 and C3PO. The movie creates the strongest image of a human future with robots since the 1960's and inspires a generation of researchers.
    ASEA, a European robot company, offers two sizes of electric powered industrial robots. Both robots use a microcomputer controller for programming and operation.

  • Walking Robot Unveiled

    A walking robot named Genghis is unveiled by the Mobile Robots Group at MIT. It becomes known for the way it walks, popularly referred to as the "Genghis gait".

  • Sony builds Aibo

    Sony builds Aibo. One of the first robots intended for the consumer market. It reacts to sounds and has some sort of preprogrammed behavior. It sells out within 20 minutes of going on sale.

  • Smallest Flying Robot

    Epson releases the smallest flying robot. Weighing 0.35 ounces (10 grams) and measuring 2.8 inches (70 millimeters) in height, the Micro Flying Robot is unveiled as the world's lightest and smallest robot helicopter.

  • Japan's Mitsubishi Research Institute

    Japan's Mitsubishi Research Institute believes household robots will begin to penetrate the market in earnest in 2010. Predictions on the size of the Intelligent Service Robot industry in 2010… $US20billion (Japan Machinery Federation); $US24.3billion (International Federation of Robotics); $US70 billion (Korea's Ministry of Commerce)