Ancient Robots
Probably the oldest mentioning of autonomous mobile robots may be found in Homer’s Iliad
(written circa 800 B.C.). According to this source, Hephaistos, the Greek god of smiths, fire and metalworking, built 20 three-legged creatures (tripods) “with golden wheels beneath the base of each that of themselves they might enter the gathering of the gods at his wish and again return to his house” (book 18, verse 375). They are described as being powerful and intelligent, with ears and voices, willing to help and work for him [Homer
800 B.C.]. – Details regarding their technology are left to the imagination of the reader.
Mechanical animals that could be animated by water, air and steam pressure were constructed by Hero of Alexandria
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Even worse: while a maid will be forgiven her occasional mistakes if she offers sincere apologies, no technology is available for implanting the necessary capacities for sincerity, feeling of guilt and compassion in a robot. In fact, marketable servant robots are far beyond our present technology in many respects and all personal robots that have been marketed are pet robots.Pet robots have already demonstrated their indirect usefulness in systematic studies. For instance, Shibata and coworkers [Wada et al.
2003] have carried out rehabilitation experiments in various hospitals with a white furry robot seal called Paro (the name comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the first letters of ‘personal robot’). Paro has 7 degrees of freedom, tactile sensors on the whiskers and most of its body, posture and light sensors, and two microphones. It generates behaviors based on stimulation (frequency, type, etc.), the time of day and internal moods. Paro has one significant advantage over artificial cats and dogs: people usually do not have pre-conceived notions about seal behavior and are unfamiliar with their appearance, and thus people easily report that the interaction with Paro seems completely natural and appropriate. The seal’s