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1495
humanoid robot
Around 1495 Leonardo da Vinci sketched plans for a humanoid robot. -
a number of life-sized automatons
Between 1700 and 1900 a number of life-sized automatons were created including a famous mechanical duck made by Jacques De Vaucanson that could crane its neck, flap its wings and even swallow food. -
Model T
Henry Ford installs the world’s first moving conveyor belt-based assembly line in his car factory. A Model T can be assembled in 93 minutes. -
Karel Capek
Karel Capek coins the word ‘robot’ to describe machines that resemble humans in his play called Rossums Universal Robots. The play was about a society that became enslaved by the robots that once served them. This idea is now a common theme in popular culture, Frankenstein, Terminator, The Matrix etc. -
On Computable Numbers
Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which begins the computer revolution. -
arm
George Devol and Joe Engleberger design the first programmable robot ‘arm’. This later became the first industrial robot, completing dangerous and repetitive tasks on an assembly line at General Motors (1962). -
George Lucas
The first Star Wars movie is released. George Lucas‘s movie inspires a new generation of researchers through his image of a human future shared with robots such as the now famous R2-D2 and C-3PO. -
Robotics Inventions System
LEGO launches its first Robotics Inventions System. -
Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick makes Arthur C. Clark's, 2001: A Space Odyssey into a movie. It features HAL, an on board computer that develops a mind of its own. -
Garry Kasparov.
On May 11, a computer built by IBM known as Deep Blue beat world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The first Robocup tournament is held in Japan. The goal of Robocup is to have a fully automated team of robots beat the worlds best soccer team by the year 2050.
