Timeline of Robotics

Timeline of Robotics; highlighting key events and inventions throughout history:

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🏺 Ancient Times to 1700s

• 300 BCE (Greece) – Greek engineer Ctesibius builds water clocks with moving figures (early automata).

• 1495 (Italy) – Leonardo da Vinci sketches a humanoid robot knight powered by pulleys and gears.

• 1738 (France) – Jacques de Vaucanson creates "The Digesting Duck", a mechanical duck automaton that simulates eating and digestion.

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⚙️ 1800s – Early Mechanical Automation

• 1801 – Jacquard loom is invented; uses punch cards to automate weaving patterns (early programmable machine).

• 1898 – Nikola Tesla demonstrates a radio-controlled boat – a precursor to remote-controlled robotics.

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🧠 1900–1950 – Rise of Ideas & Concepts

• 1921 (Czech Republic) – The term "robot" is first used in the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek.

• 1942 (USA) – Isaac Asimov formulates the Three Laws of Robotics in his science fiction stories.

• 1948 – W. Grey Walter builds autonomous robots ("tortoises") that use light and touch sensors – early behavior-based robots.

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🔬 1950–2000 – Robotics as a Science

• 1954 – George Devol invents the first programmable robot, Unimate.

• 1961 – Unimate becomes the first industrial robot used in General Motors factories.

• 1966 – Shakey the Robot, developed by Stanford Research Institute, becomes the first mobile robot that can reason about its actions.

• 1980s – Surge in industrial robot use (Japan, USA, Europe); robots are used in welding, painting, and assembly.

• 1997 – NASA's Sojourner rover explores Mars, marking a milestone in space robotics.

• 1999 – Sony AIBO, a robotic pet dog, is released.

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🤖 2000–Present – Modern Robotics

• 2002 – Roomba robot vacuum is introduced by iRobot.

• 2004 – DARPA Grand Challenge encourages development of autonomous vehicles.

• 2012 – Boston Dynamics reveals Atlas, a bipedal humanoid robot.

• 2016 – Sophia, a humanoid robot by Hanson Robotics, is activated; she gains media attention for human-like behavior.

• 2020s – Robotics integrates AI and machine learning; used in healthcare (surgical robots), logistics (warehouse bots), and service industries.

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🚀 The Future (Ongoing)

• Human-robot collaboration (cobots)

• AI-integrated smart robotics

• Advanced prosthetics and medical robots

• Space exploration robots (e.g., NASA’s Perseverance, SpaceX robotics)

• Ethical and legal challenges in autonomous robotics