Boing Boing: Recreating a robot from 60 AD

View a recent day: August 20 | August 19 | August 18 | previous days | by month and year

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Recreating a robot from 60 AD

In 60 AD, Greek engineer Hero built a self-propelled and programmable cart to carry automata around a theater stage. According to University of Sheffield computer scientist Noel Sharkey, this was probably one of the earliest programmable robots ever. Recently, the editors at New Scientist built their own version of the bot. From the New Scientist blog:

Power (for Hero's cart) came from a falling weight that pulled on string wrapped round the cart's drive axle, and Sharkey reckons this string-based control mechanism is exactly equivalent to a modern programming language...

Our cart was made from a child's scooter, a broom handle, wood, string, and lead weights from an old sash window.

Link

posted by David Pescovitz at 01:34:57 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

View a recent day: August 20, 2007 | August 19, 2007 | August 18, 2007 | August 17, 2007 | August 16, 2007 | August 15, 2007 | August 14, 2007 | previous days | all BB archives by month and year

suggest a link \| defeat censorware \| rss \| archives \| t-shirts \| digital emporium \| podcast feed \| mark \| cory \| david \| xeni \| john
Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: August 20 \| August 19 \| August 18 \| previous days \| by month and year Thursday, July 5, 2007 Recreating a robot from 60 AD In 60 AD, Greek engineer Hero built a self-propelled and programmable cart to carry automata around a theater stage. According to University of Sheffield computer scientist Noel Sharkey, this was probably one of the earliest programmable robots ever. Recently, the editors at New Scientist built their own version of the bot. From the New Scientist blog: Power (for Hero's cart) came from a falling weight that pulled on string wrapped round the cart's drive axle, and Sharkey reckons this string-based control mechanism is exactly equivalent to a modern programming language... Our cart was made from a child's scooter, a broom handle, wood, string, and lead weights from an old sash window. Link posted by David Pescovitz at 01:34:57 PM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: August 20, 2007 \| August 19, 2007 \| August 18, 2007 \| August 17, 2007 \| August 16, 2007 \| August 15, 2007 \| August 14, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: