Who invented the first robot

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

A forgotten visionary
Technology way ahead of its time
I. The Pre-History of Robots
II. Early Robots
III. The Robot Explosion

The Drawing Boy Automata from 1773 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

he word “robot” is becoming more common in our vocabulary, although most people still treat it as something new. Robots aren’t a new technology as we think and this robot from 1773 by the name of “Drawing Boy Automata” proves it. Back in the day, however, people would not refer to such technologies as robots, but rather as machines or mechanisms.

This ancient robot was forgotten in time as people during the 18th century weren’t able to comprehend this piece of technology, especially the impressive mechanism at the back of the robot which was way ahead of their time. Some people referred to this robot as “The Writer” due to what it was able to do.

A forgotten visionary

The man with the futurist vision that was able to create this robot was Pierre Jaquet-Droz. Pierre was the first watchmaker behind the famous brand Automata. Born in Switzerland, Pierre always was interested in watches and specifically how they work. From a very young age, he would dismantle old clocks to discover the intricate system inside.

Even to this day, Pierre Jaquet-Droz is believed to be the best watchmaker of his time and his pièce de résistance proves it. In 1772 he wanted to really show the world the power of technology. Every piece of technology had been created to solve a problem, Pierre’s problem as well as the world’s population at the time was writing. Not everyone was a neat writer, nor did most people know how to write.

That is why Pierre decided to create a programmable writing machine. With the help of this son Henri Louis Jaquet-Droz and a good friend Jean-Frederic Leschot, Pierre managed to create over 6,000 custom mechanical components that would create the Writer.

The programmable wheel at the back of the machine (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

This machine would be able to write with a quill and ink any letter from the English alphabet that is shown on the wheel at the back. What is amazing is that the writer works on his own by even applying the ink to the quill and without the use of any source of energy, it is all mechanic.

Technology way ahead of its time

You can have a look at the way the robot functions in this short documentary made by Professor Simon Schaffer. The video shows how the robot functions and how natural his movements are when writing. What is even more freakish is that his eyes focus on every letter he writes on paper, as if it were alive.

The Robots/Machines created by Pierre Jaquet-Droz (Source: The Week)

In his career as an innovative inventor, Pierre also made two other such types of robots named The Draughtsman and The Musician both autonomous and doing what their names imply. Some historians say that Pierre is the father of computing for the mechanisms he created, at least the basics of computing.

Pierre Jaquet-Droz presenting his machines to the public in 1774 (Source: CommonPlace)

When these creations were presented to the public people were simply amazed. Some who didn’t understand the complex mechanism thought that the machines were actually possessed by some sort of demonic power, whilst many others just mistook them for simple toys due to their appearance.

The world never truly understood the technological jump and what an important historical moment it was. It surprises me that even to this day not many people are aware of this creation and some still think that it is a hoax. Those who still do not believe it can see the machine with their own eyes at the Museum of Art History in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Just like Leonardo da Vinci or Nikola Tesla, Pierre Jaquet-Droz is just another visionary that was thinking way ahead of the technology available at the time or simply born in the wrong century.

If we take a look at today’s technology and how quickly it evolves we slowly stop being amazed as today’s science fiction movie presents tomorrow’s technology and the capabilities of the world. For the present society, the word “robot” refers to a much more complex system that focuses on artificial intelligence.

Robots are machines that supplement or enhance human activities. They can do this in a number of ways:

I. The Pre-History of Robots

People have been fascinated with

"artificial beings" for thousands of years.

The ancient Hebrews wrote about a person made out of dirt and clay called a golem. The golem was created to help with menial labor.
The ancient Greek god Hephaestus was believed to build himself mechanical assistants out of gold.
Around 400 B.C.E., the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum built a mechanical bird to try and better understand how birds fly.
Around 1495, Leonardo DaVinci publishes designs for a mechanical knight. Over the next 400 years, several toy automata are built, largely for the entertainment of royalty.
The word "robot" is first used in 1921 by Czech playwrite Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). The play involves a factory that builds artificial people to be servants for humans.
In 1926, Metropolis becomes the first movie to portray a humanoid robot on screen.
In 1927, Westinghouse builds the Televox robot

II. Early Robots

In the 20th century, the digital computer is invented.Researchers quicklystart referring to the computer as an "electronic brain" and start thinking about ways to build robots with computer brains.

The first modern programmable robot was the Unimate. General Motors installed the first robot to work in a factory in 1961 to move pieces of hot metal. Unimate was an autonomous, pre-programmed robot that repeatedly performed the same dangerous task.

In 1966, Shakey the Robot is invented at Stanford. Shakey was the first autonmous, intelligent robot that made its own decisions about how to behave. Shakey could be given general instructions, such as "move the block onto the table" and it would reason how to perform the task. This would involve looking around the room, identifying the block and the table, and then figuring out how to get the block to the table, including navigating around any obstacles in the room. In 2004 Shakey was inducted into Carenegie Mellon's Robot Hall of Fam.

III. The Robot Explosion

As computers have gotten more powerful, robotics research has taken off in a number of different directions:

Researchers in artificial inteligence have made significant advances in the science of creating intelligent autonomous machines. These machines have been improvements on Shakey that can reason about a wider range of tasks; vehicles that can drive, sail, or fly on their own; or robots that model how animals, from insects to dogs, behave.
Others have focused more on creating artificial limbs that can move and act like human limbs. Some of these have been constructed in conjunction with neuroscientists to create prosthetics that can respond to human neural impulses.
Still others have focused on trying to build humanoid robots. The earliest of these robots, such as Honda's ASIMO, are clearly mechanical beings built to mimic the basic form of human beings. More recent attempts like Eva have tried to mimic human facial expressions.

Over the rest of this curriculum we will be exploring in more detail how these various robots are constructed and programmed.