"Look! It's Moving!"

From Αutomata to Robots

In the early 1200s, inventor Al-Jazari designed a boat that carried four mechanical musicians. The robot musicians could move their arms and heads and play music for guests at royal parties. According to his design, Al-Jazari could change the beat of the music thanks to a series of movable pegs.

This mechanical duck was invented by Jacques de Vaucanson in the 1700s. His robot duck was perched on top of a massive gearbox. In a stunning feat of engineering, these gears let it eat, “drink, play in the water with its bill, and make a gurgling noise like a real living duck.” It even seemed to poop out the food it had eaten!

Henri Maillardet’s incredible automaton was a mechanical “boy” sitting at a desk. This boy could draw four drawings, write three poems in cursive, and sign his name all on his own! To do this, Maillardet built a “memory” for the machine, similar to the memory computers have today. The memory was made from brass disks, levers, rods, and motors that transferred motion to the boy’s hand.

Looming over nine feet tall while seated at its desk, Gakutensoku was probably Japan’s first robot. Its designer, Makoto Nishimura, wanted to create a robot that celebrated nature and was a friend to humans. Gakutensoku could write and show different expressions on its rubber face—all thanks to the power of an internal air pressure mechanism.

Unimate could lift heavy objects, move like a human arm, and follow step-by-step instructions. It was invented by the American engineer George Devol. Joseph Engelberger, later called the “father of robotics,” saw its potential to perform risky jobs so people were less likely to get hurt. He put it to work in a General Motors assembly line, where it helped build cars. Unimate became the first successful industrial robot.

Sophia is a humanoid robot that uses cutting-edge materials and engineering to behave like a human. She moves like a human, copies human facial expressions, and even recognizes emotions in others. This is thanks to artificial intelligence technology. Using AI, Sophia can make jokes, hold conversations, answer questions, and more.