Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
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Early History—Robots, Thought,
Creativity, Learning and Translation
Robot Tortoises
In his
History of the Second World War
, Sir Winston Churchill wrote a
chapter on the “wizards” who had helped Britain to win the war in the
air by the development and use of radar. William Grey Walter (1910-
1977) was one of those young wizards.
WalterwasborninKansasCitybutwaseducatedinEngland,where
he chose to remain. During the late 1940s Walter, who was also a
renowned neuro-physiologist and had been a leading figure in the de-
velopment of electro-cephalogram technology, carried out pioneering re-
search on mobile autonomous robots. He started building three-wheeled,
tortoise-like robots at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol, as
part of his attempts to model the function of the brain. He wanted to
study the basis of simple reflex actions and to test a theory of complex
behavior arising from the interconnection of neurons. He was convinced
that even organisms with extremely simple nervous systems could show
complex and unexpected behavior.
Walter conceived and created the first autonomous robotic “animals”,
who he named Elmer (Electro-mechanical Robot) and Elsie. They were
built in the guise of tortoises, inspired by the turtle who taught the other
turtles in
Alice'sAdventuresinWonderland
and who was therefore called
a tortoise.
1
Walter's robots were unique because, unlike the few robotic
creations that had preceded them, they did not have a fixed behavior.
His robots had reflexes which, when combined with their environment,
resulted in them avoiding the repetition of the same actions. This life-
like behavior was an early form of what we now call Artificial Life.
Walter's robot design was rather crude (see
Figure 10
)
. The tortoise's
“muscles”, which caused it to move, consisted of three wheels, of which
two were for propelling the tortoise forwards and backwards while the
1
Get it? “Taught” becomes “tort”.
