| The idea of artificial people dates at least | | | | (1452-1519) in around 1495. Da Vinci's |
| as far back as the ancient legend of Cadmus, | | | | notebooks, rediscovered in the 1950s, contain |
| who sowed dragon teeth that turned into | | | | detailed drawings of a mechanical knight able |
| soldiers, and the myth of Pygmalion, whose | | | | to sit up, wave its arms and move its head |
| statue of Galatea came to life. In Greek | | | | and jaw. The design is likely to be based on |
| mythology, the deformed god of metalwork | | | | his anatomical research recorded in the |
| (Vulcan or Hephaestus) created mechanical | | | | Vitruvian Man. It is not known whether he |
| servants, ranging from intelligent, golden | | | | attempted to build the robot (see: Leonardo's |
| handmaidens to more utilitarian three-legged | | | | robot). |
| tables that could move about under their own | | | | |
| power. Medieval Persian alchemist Jabir ibn | | | | An early automaton was created 1738 by |
| Hayyan, inventor of many basic processes | | | | Jacques de Vaucanson, who created a |
| still used in chemistry today, included | | | | mechanical duck that was able to eat grain, |
| recipes for creating artificial snakes, | | | | flap its wings, and excrete. |
| scorpions, and humans in his coded Book of | | | | |
| Stones. Jewish legend tells of the Golem, a | | | | Many consider the first robot in the modern |
| clay statue animated by Kabbalistic magic. | | | | sense to be a teleoperated boat, similar to a |
| Similarly, in the Younger Edda, Norse | | | | modern ROV, devised by Nikola Tesla and |
| mythology tells of a clay giant, Makkurkalfi | | | | demonstrated at an 1898 exhibition in Madison |
| or Mistcalf, constructed to aid the troll | | | | Square Garden. Based on his patents 613,809, |
| Hrungnir in a duel with Thor, the God of | | | | 723,188 and 725,605 for "teleautomation", |
| Thunder. | | | | Tesla hoped to develop the "wireless torpedo" |
| | | | into an automated weapon system for the US |
| The word robot was introduced by Czech writer | | | | Navy. (Cheney 1989) Tesla also proposed but |
| Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's | | | | did not build remotely operated war planes |
| Universal Robots) which was written in 1920 | | | | and ground vehicles. He also predicted these |
| (See also Robots in literature for details of | | | | remote controlled machines were merely |
| the play). However, the verb robotovat, | | | | precursors of "machines possessed of their |
| meaning "to work" or "to slave", and the noun | | | | own intelligence" (Cheney 1989). See also the |
| robota (meaning corve) used in the Czech and | | | | PBS website article (with photos) : Tesla - |
| Slovak languages, has been used since the | | | | Master of Lightning: Race of Robots |
| early 10th century. It was suggested that the | | | | |
| word robot had been coined by Karel Capek's | | | | In the 1930s, Westinghouse made a humanoid |
| brother, painter and writer Josef Capek. | | | | robot known as Elektro. It was exhibited at |
| | | | the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs while the |
| Concepts akin to today's robot can be found | | | | first electronic autonomous robots were |
| as long ago as 450 BC when the Greek | | | | created by W. Grey Walter at Bristol |
| mathematician Archytas of Tarentum postulated | | | | University, England in 1948. |
| a mechanical bird he called "The Pigeon" | | | | |
| which was propelled by steam. Heron of | | | | The first human to be killed by a robot was |
| Alexandria (10AD-70AD) made numerous | | | | 37 year-old Kenji Urada, a Japanese factory |
| innovations in the field of automata, | | | | worker, in 1981. According to the |
| including (allegedly) one that could speak. | | | | Economist.com, Urada "climbed over a safety |
| Al-Jazari (1136-1206) an Ortoqid (Artuk) Arab | | | | fence at a Kawasaki plant to carry out some |
| inventor designed and constructed automatic | | | | maintenance work on a robot. In his haste, he |
| machines such as water clocks, kitchen | | | | failed to switch the robot off properly. |
| appliances and musical automats powered by | | | | Unable to sense him, the robot's powerful |
| water (See one of his works at [6]). | | | | hydraulic arm kept on working and |
| | | | accidentally pushed the engineer into a |
| One of the first recorded designs of a | | | | grinding machine." |
| humanoid robot was made by Leonardo da Vinci | | | | |