1 AUTOMATONS PROVIDE INSPIRATION FOR FUTURE ROBOTS Jaquet-Droz made two others The Musician could play five songs on an organ The Draughtsman could be programmed to draw simple pictures such as a dog or a man ROBOTS A robot is a type of machine that carries out a complex set of tasks automatically Early robots called automatons were purely mechanical They had moving parts similar to a clock Later robots were controlled by computers Some robots are made to resemble people Others are built for specific tasks In 1768 Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz introduced The Writer It was like a wooden doll but with mechanical parts that moved on their own The 28-inch 0 7-m figure was carved from wood Approximately 4,000 cams gears and rods turned inside It sat at a table and wrote up to three lines of text The Writer dipped a quill into a pot of ink Its eyes and head followed its hands as they moved Its motions made it appear lifelike A wheel could be changed to make it write different words Automatons such as The Writer were an early kind of robot An automaton is a machine that can move by itself in a repetitive manner The Writer could be programmed to write different text This set it apart from other automatons of the time 4
40 The number of letters or symbols The Writer could be programmed to write at a time Automatons became popular in the 1700s First mechanical device that could be programmed Created interest in robotics Kings and queens all over Europe invited Jaquet Droz to demonstrate his creations People were amazed to see what they did As word spread inventors were inspired to see what else automatons could do An automaton created by eighteenth-century Swiss watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz has the ability to sketch pictures and write poems 5
2 TESLA INTRODUCES RADIO REMOTE CONTROL in New York City He put a small boat in an indoor pond The boat moved without anyone touching it Audience members asked the boat questions It appeared to answer by blinking its lights At first some people thought Tesla was controlling the boat with In 1898 scientist Nikola Tesla introduced a new invention to an audience at Madison Square Garden Students view Tesla’s radio controlled boat at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade Serbia 6
4 Length in feet 1 2 m of Tesla’s robotic boat Introduced by Nikola Tesla in 1898 World’s first use of remote control Called the birth of robotics Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and engineer his mind But he was using radio waves He moved the levers on a small control box to send signals through the air Tesla was the first to use wireless radio control His robotic boat was powered by batteries Radio signals activated switches The switches powered the propeller rudders and lights Tesla thought the technology could be used to operate a variety of vehicles and machines from a distance Tesla pictured machines fighting in wars instead of people But the US Navy was not interested in his technology It was decades before Tesla’s ideas were used Because of his vision however he has been called the father of robotics THINK ABOUT IT Many people were afraid of Tesla’s remote-controlled boat Why do you think they had this reaction 7
