The history of robots began long before the 20th century. Two hundred years ago, automatons appeared that were capable of writing texts, drawing, and shooting arrows, and at the beginning of our era, there are mentions of various mechanisms that could be called robots. They depicted people and animals and performed various actions, such as pouring wine or entering the king's room.
In this article, we will talk about the history of humanoid robots and where it has led us. We will deliberately avoid topics such as specialized robots for rescuing people in emergency situations, self-driving cars, robot dogs, and flying machines.
Automata: the first robots
The name “automaton” comes from a Greek word meaning “self-moving.” These are dolls that, thanks to a mechanical drive, are capable of performing various actions: moving their arms and legs, turning their heads, opening and closing their eyelids, shooting a bow and arrow, and even... writing text on paper with a pen.
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In the latter case, automata could even be programmable - that is, the symbols in the mechanism could be changed.
Various mechanisms, whose functionality could be attributed to today's robots, date back to before our era. One of the first mentions of a human-like robot dates back to the 3rd century BC: engineer, mechanic, and mathematician Philo of Byzantium (280–220 BC) created a statue of a servant: the mechanism allowed her to pour wine into a bowl and dilute it with water.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was a famous inventor of mechanisms. Among his inventions was a mechanical knight. The mechanism inside the knight's armor allowed the system to imitate various movements—the automaton could sit down, stand up, and move its arms and neck. It is not known for certain whether this mechanism was actually implemented, but our contemporaries were able to reconstruct it based on da Vinci's drawings.
Interesting fact: robot developer Mark Rosheim was inspired by Leonardo's invention and other automata while working at NASA, among other places, as he recounted in an interview. He also wrote a book called “Leonardo's Lost Robots.”
In 16th-century Japan, automatons began to appear in the form of servants serving tea or warriors shooting bows. These dolls were called Karakuri Ningyo and were used in theater, for games at home, and for religious holidays.
Interestingly, similar robot waiters were sold hundreds of years later, in the 1970s and 1980s, and have recently become popular again—Russian-made robots are used at various exhibitions and conferences.
Robots in real life
In the 1940s, neurophysiologist Grey Walter developed a robot turtle. The three-wheeled robot was able to navigate around obstacles. The robot sought light—it “saw” the absence of light thanks to a sensor. The robot avoided bright light: that is, it turned away if it got too close to the source. When it collided with an obstacle, the “turtle” stopped and drove around it. When the robot's battery ran out, it went to recharge.
In the 2000s, robots appeared that even now look very advanced. For example, the first robot in the Asimo line from the Japanese corporation Honda. The name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative MObility. It is no coincidence that it sounds similar to the surname of Isaac Asimov.
The first robot, 130 centimeters tall and resembling an astronaut in a spacesuit, demonstrated the ability to walk at speeds of up to 7 km/h and move its arms. The robots were taught to walk up stairs and recognize people by the name tags on their chests. But the project itself had been in existence since 1986, meaning that the company had been working on the first prototype for quite a long time. Later, other robots in the line were introduced—they could, for example, pour drinks.
Asimo never became a commercial product, and in 2018 Honda announced the end of Asimo robot development. In that statement, Honda noted that it would focus, among other things, on creating nursing robots.
The future of robots
Sometimes the creators of various devices and scientists say that they don't need to invent anything. It is enough to read science fiction books or watch films that show possible developments in technology – writers and screenwriters have already come up with enough ideas for us to see the future in twenty or even a hundred years.
Earlier in the article, we talked about 20th-century science fiction, and now I suggest taking a look at a few more films that raise important questions about robots and artificial intelligence.