Robotric Timeline
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~270BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures.
1818 – Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” which was about a frightening artificial lifeform created by Dr. Frankenstein.
1921 – The term “robot” was first used in a play called “R.U.R.” or “Rossums Universal Robots” by the Czech writer Karel Capek. The plot was simple: man makes robot then robot kills man!
1941 – Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word “robotics” to describe the technology of robots and predicted the rise of a powerful robot industry.
1942 – Asimov wrote “Runaround”, a story about robots which contained the “Three Laws of Robotics”:
A robot may not injure a human, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders it by human beings except where such orders would conflic with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict withe the First or Second Law.
1948 – “Cybernetics”, an influence on artificial intelligence research was published by Norbert Wiener
1956 – George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the worlds first robot company.
1959 – Computer-assisted manufacturingg was demonstrated at the Servomechanisms Lab at MIT.
1961 – The first industrial robot was online in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. It was called UNIMATE.
1963 – The first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed. The Rancho Arm was designed as a tool for the handicapped and its six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm.
1965 – DENDRAL was the first expert system or program designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of subject experts.
1968 – The octopus-like Tentacle Arm was developed by Marvin Minsky.
1969 – The Stanford Arm was the first electrically powered, computer-controlled robot