Evolution of Robots Handout 1

Name Class _ Sec _

Descriptions of ancient robots date back to the 1st century.

These devices are known as automatons, from the Greek
word automatons, or “acting of one’s own will.” Automa-tons
are non-electronic moving machines that mimic human or
animal actions.

In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci designed a complex humanoid automaton, which could possibly
perform human-like motions like sitting, head and arm movement. The robot appears to be a
warrior or knight, dressed in German-Italian medieval armor.
 Elektro, was built by
Westing- house Electric
Corporation between 1937
and 1938. He is seven feet
tall and weighed 265
pounds. He could walk by
voice command.

In 1961, Unimate became the first industrial robot to

work at the assembly line of a New Jersey General
Motors plant. The machine undertook the job of
transporting die castings from an assembly line and
welding these parts on auto bodies.
ped from approximately 1966 through 1972. It was the first general-purpose mobile robot that combined logical reasoning
ped at the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Stanford Research Institute.

ASIMO is a humanoid
robot created by Honda
in 2000. ASIMO can walk
or run at speeds of up to
3.7 MPH (6 km/h)...
Sophia is a social humanoid robot developed by Hong
Kong-based Hanson Robotics. Sophia was activated
on April 19, 2015. She is able to display more than 62
facial expressions.