"Tortoise" Mobile Robot
date: label: date made
content: ca 1950
notes: label: Description
content: Among the first electronic mobile robots were the experimental machines of neuroscientist W. Grey Walter. Walter studied the brain’s electrical activity at the Burden Neurological Institute (BNI) near Bristol, England. His battery-powered robots were models to test his theory that a minimum number of brain cells can control complex behavior and choice. Soon after World War II, electronic motors and computers made possible such experimental robots that imitated living intelligence. Researchers like Walter then sought to answer a question that still occupies their successors: How close can machines come to human intelligence?
label: Description
content: In the late 1940s Walter built his first model animals—simple, slow-moving, tortoise-shaped machines he named Elmer and Elsie. In 1951, Walter enlisted BNI engineer W. J. Warren to build the robot displayed here.
label: Description
content: The machines are designed to explore their environment and react to it with two senses—sight and touch. A rotating photoelectric cell, the machine’s “eye,” scans the horizon continuously until it detects an external light. Scanning stops and the machine either moves toward the light source or, if the source is too bright, moves away. An external contact switch, sensitive to touch, causes the machine to retreat if it encounters obstacles. The robots retreat to a recharging station when their batteries were low.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Robots and Automatons
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content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr. F. W. and J. Merlyn Clutterbuck
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1993.0500.01
label: accession number
content: 1993.0500
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0500.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: robot
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic, metal (overall materials)
label: Measurements
content: overall - robot: 10 3/8 in x 6 3/4 in x 10 1/4 in; 26.3525 cm x 17.145 cm x 26.035 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall - cover: 9 1/2 in x 10 1/8 in x 13 7/8 in; 24.13 cm x 25.7175 cm x 35.2425 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall - box: 3 1/8 in x 1 in x 1 1/8 in; 7.9375 cm x 2.54 cm x 2.8575 cm