From modern reconstructions built from da Vinci’s blueprints, it’s clear that da Vinci’s design gave the knight unprecedented articulation: the knight could stand up, sit, down, possessed a range of motion in the arms that echoed the famous Vitruvian Man, and even had an anatomically correct jaw structure. While his robotic knight likely never made it past the sketchbook, it is clear that da Vinci modeled his automaton after his own understanding of the human body: gears and wheels replaced joints, while cables and pulleys replaced tendons and muscles. Reconstruction of DaVini's Knight Wikipedia Greek mythology gives us early recorded references to automated machines serving gods and men alike: the Greek god Hephaestus is said to have created “Golden Servants” that were something like robot butlers.Ī couple of millennia before Asimov came up with his Three Rules of Robotics, Aristotle envisioned a world where the automatons could evolve into a practical labor force capable of changing the world as he knew it: “If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it … then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.” Perhaps the most important Greek contribution to the future of robotics was not the mathematicians or engineers, but the philosophers and storytellers. The great mathematician and engineer Hero of Alexandria is said to have created a number of automata for religious and ceremonial purposes most were not in human form, but were machines able to perform basic functions (such as opening gates) or decorative objects like clocks or mechanized dioramas. As far back as 420 BCE, Greek engineers developed rudimentary automatons propelled by compressed air, steam, and hydraulics. The Greeks were heavy into the concepts of automatons. It was through automatons that concepts of a robotic work forces, sentient androids, and even mechanical organs were predicted. In fact, most automatons of yore are closer to puppets than the robots we recognize today, but we can’t underestimate the influence automatons had on the development of the latter. It’s important to point out that automatons are specifically not robots in the way we understand today under most modern definitions robots need both electricity and some sort of artificial intelligence. Centuries before the term “robot” (literally, “forced labor” in Czech) was coined, philosophers, engineers, and mathematicians attempted to build analog mechanical creations called automatons, capable of mimicking organic function. Concepts of robotics have been floating around the human consciousness since 3500 BCE.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |