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