POSTER 2017, PRAGUE MARCH 24 1

Magicae Machinas

Milestones in Robot and Automaton History

Gil Goldman

Dept. of Cybernetics, Czech Technical University, 120 00 Praha 2, Praha, Czech Republic

gilgoldman@gmail.com, goldmgil@fel.cvut.cz

Abstract. In this article, we will cover a brief history of

automatons and robots throughout history, examine some

of the world’s firsts, and cover a few modern intelligent

and pre-intelligent systems.

We will discuss the Antikythera mechanism, Al Jazari’s

Floating Orchestra and Elephant clock, the work of Pierre

Jaquet-Droz and Jacques de Vaucanson, and Tanaka’s

famous Karakuri. We will also discuss modern robots such

as the pre-intelligent, remote or direct controlled Kuratas

and TALON robots, and intelligent systems the likes of

Asimo and Amazon’s robot swarms.

Keywords

Robotics, History, Automatons, Myths, Legends,

Machines, history of robotics, history of automatons,

robotics in mythology, modern robotics, industrial

robotics, intelligent systems

1. What is a robot?

Robot. The very word conjures vivid and widely

varied images in our mind, visions of miraculous feats or of

terrible horrors. However, the definition of a robot and its

cognitive weight have changed significantly across the

centuries, between different countries and sometimes even

from one person to the next. So before we review their

history, we must first ask ourselves - What is a Robot?

The term “Robot” comes from the medieval Czech-

Slavic word “Robota”, originally meaning the work a

vassal, or peasant, was obliged to do for their ruling lord

for no payment. It was first used in its modern context in

Karel Čapek’s 1920 play called “R.U.R”, Rossum’s

Universal Robots (originally “Rossumovi Univerzální

Roboti” in Czech), which weaves the story of the creation

of artificial humans to be used for cheap labor, quickly

followed by the artificial humanoids revolt and the end of

humanity.

However, despite being the first to use the word,

Čapek’s Robots are more akin to modern Cyborgs –

synthetic humanoids, rather than cognizant machines. As

the word evolved and changed as it has sparked the

imagination of thousands, resulting in many definitions for

what a robot is: in his famous 2015 article “The Road to

Super Intelligence”, the blogger Tim Urban refers to robots

simply as a “container for Artificial Intelligence”1. Andy

Rubin, inventor of the Android operating system, said in a

2016 interview with WIRED magazine that every machine

could become a robot if it will “First… sense. Next, it must

compute. Then, it must actuate”2. The International

Federation of Robotics (IFR) draws the distinction between

two types of robots: industrial robots - “An automatically

controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose manipulator

programmable in three or more axes, which may be either

fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation

applications”3 – and service robots – “… is a robot that

performs useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding

industrial automation application”4. In professional circles,

however, a robot is most commonly referred to as a

machine capable of making decisions.

2. Robots of the Past

In this section, we will cover two aspects of robots in

history: humanoid machines in various mythologies and

cultures, and actual automatons throughout history. We

will contrast and compare their complexity, capabilities,

and purpose.

1 The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 1

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-

intelligence-revolution-1.html

2 What Is a Robot?

https://www.wired.com/2016/02/editors-letter-

march-2016/

3 Industrial robots according to the IFR:

http://www.ifr.org/industrial-robots/

4 Service Robots definition according to the IFR:

http://www.ifr.org/service-robots

2 GIL GOLDMAN, MILESTONES IN ROBOT AND AUTOMATON HISTORY

2.1 Mythical robots and humanoid

machines – golems, androids, and monsters

From the day we have started producing artifacts,

humanity has been enamored by the idea of infusing a

inanimate object with artificial life. Along the centuries, we

have grown fond of telling fables of such instances when

legendary smiths and engineers have brought machines to

life.

It seems that the first to tell the tale of cognizant

machines were the Chinese, apparently the first in history

to have discovered the wonders of the automaton. as

mentioned in The Writings of Master Lei (“列子” (Lei

Zi), in Chinese). According to the Lei Zi, the ingenious

artificer Yan Shi has presumably created a fully functional,

human-like android for the entertainment of King Mu of

the Zhou Dynasty, approximately during the 10th century

BC. The android has allegedly walked, talked, danced,

sang, and “…winked its eye and made advances to the

ladies in attendance…”5. It is assumed that the android

myth was created solely to glorify the Zhou Dynasty, as the

book goes to great lengths to show that the androids

anatomy was compliant with the way human anatomy was

perceived at the time of writing. We may find evidence of

it in the book in the form of “…The king tried the effect of

taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no

longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no

longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their

power of locomotion…”6.

Another famous instance of mythical humanoid

machines are the Jewish Golems – powerful beings made

of clay, dirt, or metal, created by the greatest and most

powerful Jewish Mekubbals (Jewish mystics) in times of

dire need or great danger. There are two general types of

Golems: the first type of Golem is created by Ashkenazi

mystics, made of clay or dirt, and draw its strength from

words of power, usually derivatives of the 70 different

names for God in Jewish mythology, written on a piece of

parchment deposited in the Golem’s mouth.

The second type, the Sephardic Golems, were made

of various metals (bronze, iron, etc.) and drew their power

from the astral effect of the stars. Golems, by their very

definition, were machines – inanimate, mute humanoids,

activated by writing the Hebrew word Truth (אמת, E’Met)

on a piece of jewelry given to the Golem, or directly unto

the Golem’s body. Golems were used mainly as labor, to

preform demanding and repetitive physical tasks or, thanks

to their hulking physique, as protection during times of

strife. The first Golem in Jewish mythology is said to be

Adam, the first man, created by god out of clay, and given

limited intelligence and purpose.

5 Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in

China: Volume 2

6 J. Needham, Science and Civilization in

China: Volume 2

However, perhaps the most renowned golem is the

Golem of Prague – brought to life by Rabbi Judah Loew

Ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague, to fight those who

spread the infamous Blood Libels of the time. The Golem

was activated every Sunday and deactivated every Friday,

to prevent it from preforming sacrilege and violating

Saturday, or the holy Shabbat, during which Jews must rest

and are forbidden from working. According to legend, one

Friday night, the Rabbi forgot to deactivate the Golem, and

it went on a rampage across Prague. The Rabbi eventually

caught up to the golem, fought it outside the Altneuschul –

Prague’s old-new synagogue, and eventually defeated it by

erasing the first letter of the word inscribed on the golems

forehead, E’Met, thus changing its meaning from Truth to

Met – Dead. Jewish legend says the clay remains of the

Maharal’s Golem were hidden in the Old-New synagogue’s

attic, where they remain locked to this day, waiting for a

powerful rabbi to activate it again should it be needed to

protect the Jews of Prague.

2.2 Ancient automatons – navigational

computers and defecating ducks

As is human nature, we have always aspired to

achieve our fantasies and make our dreams reality – and the

dream of a functioning automaton was not different.

The first mechanism to be considered as an automaton

was the Antikythera Mechanism. Nicknamed “The World’s

First Analog Computer”, the Antikythera Mechanism was

discovered in April 1900 on a sunken ship near Antikythera

Island in Greece, after which it is named. The mechanism

was stored in the Athens National Museum for more than

50 years, until in 1951 Professor Derek J. De Solla Price

has heard of the device, and spent over 20 years

intermittently analyzing it with his colleague Charalampos

Karakalos, a Greek nuclear physicist.

The Antikythera Mechanism was recovered from the

sunken ship as a block of dirt, rusty bronze, and tin, and

was later separated into its distinct 82 pieces7, and was

dated to the year 87 BC, though more recent measurements

have estimated it to have been created up to 120 years

earlier, around 200 BC. The mechanism is believed to

have been used as an astronomical clock – predicting

eclipses, holidays, and the cycles of the ancient Olympic

Games. The mechanism’s front dial is assumed to have

been decorated with Zodiac signs and a Sothic Egyptian

Calendar, whose month names were the original Egyptian

names transcribed into Greek.

The mechanism had a lever, which has yet to have

been recovered, through which the mechanism was

operated. Rotating the lever would move a date pointer,

which would be used to set the desired date. It was,

7 Gears from the Greeks. The Antikythera

mechanism: a calendar computer from ca 80 B.C.,

by De Solla Price, New York, NY (USA): Science

History Publications

POSTER 2017, PRAGUE MARCH 24 3

however, impossible to externally set a year to be

calculated, so a prerequisite to using the mechanism was to

know the year to which it was calibrated. Rotating the lever

would move the date pointer at a rate of 78 days per full

rotation, as well as all the other parts of the mechanism,

instantly calculating the position of the Sun, Moon, and the

other planets of the solar system, as well as Eclipses and

moon phases. In his 2012 article, Tony Freeth has

discovered that due to an error in the way the Greek have

calculated the movement of the planets, the Mars pointer

would have missed the planets accurate position by up to

38 degrees8. While there are several hypotheses, it is

currently unknown who had created the mechanism, where,

who for, and how it found its way onto the shipwreck. The

Antikythera Mechanism would remain the most complex

known mechanism for more than 1000 years.

The remains of the Antikythera mechanism

The next time the world would see such intricate

inventions was during the Islamic golden age, when the

Muslim polymath Badi' al-Zaman Abu-'l-'Izz Ibn Isma'il

Ibn al-Razzaz al-Jazari, better known as Al Jazari, set the

standard for polymaths across the world, influencing many

from Leonardo de Vinci to Pierre Jaquet-Droz. Several

researchers claim that Al Jazari’s ingenious mechanisms,

from automatons to water clocks, were the greatest

achievement since the Antikythera Mechanism9. The

reason some researchers hold this belief is that unlike some

predecessors, all of his mechanisms are described in minute

detail in his book, The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious

Mechanical Devices (Al-Jami' bayn al-'ilm wa-'l-'amal al-

nafi' fi sinat'at al-hiyal in Arabic), and using nothing more

than his original work, many of them were recreated.

8 Freeth, Tony; Jones, Alexander. "The

Cosmos in the Antikythera Mechanism". Institute

for the Study of the Ancient World, 2012.

9 Ahmad Y Hassan; Donald Routledge Hill (1986),

Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History,

Cambridge University Press

His most famous invention, the Elephant Clock, was

heavily influenced by Indo-Chinese clockwork technology,

and Al Jazari payed homage to his predecessors in the

external design of the clock – he explains in his writings

that the elephant represents India; the two Dragons

represent China, the Phoenix represents Persia, and the

Turban represents Islam. A working replica of the Elephant

Clock could be found outside the Musée d'Horlogerie du

Locle in Le Locle, Switzerland, as well as in Dubai.

Elephant clock replica, Dubai

However, One of Al Jazari’s most notable

achievements, and his personal favorite, was his Floating

Orchestra, a boat with 4 musicians on it that played music.

The boat would sail around a pond, measuring the time as it

went, and every 30 minutes the band on the boat would

play shortly. Al jazari’s boat had pegs, which, once moved,

would make the band’s drummer play different rhythms.

The band’s flute player was also adjustable, and the entire

automaton could operate independently for up to 15 cycles,

30 minutes each10.

10 Ibn al-Razzaz Al-Jazari (ed. 1974), The Book of

Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.

Translated and annotated by Donald Routledge

Hill, Dordrecht/D. Reidel, Category II, Chapter 4

4 GIL GOLDMAN, MILESTONES IN ROBOT AND AUTOMATON HISTORY

Al Jazari’s Floating orchestra painting, from “The book of

knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices”

Al Jazari’s work has inspired many famous scientists

and engineers, including a young man called Pierre Jaquet-

Droz. Jaquet-Droz first came across Al Jazari’s work

during his time in the University of Basel. Jaquet-Droz was

studying math and physics, and took a few classes in

theology, yet he dropped out to join his family’s business

as watchmakers11.

At first, Jaquet-Droz focused on pendulum clocks, but

soon drifted to automatic mechanisms, which inspired him

to build his famous automatons. Jaquet-Droz gained

notoriety for building the most intricate automatons, even

at one point scaring off the entire court of the king

Ferdinand the VI of Spain who believed his automatons to

be sorcery. His automatons were unique in that unlike most

automatons in his time, the mechanism which drove them

were housed inside the automatons body, rather than

hidden somewhere, like in a piece of furniture on which the

automaton would sit. This led to seemingly living dolls,

who would sing, play music, and would tell the time.

One of Jaquet-Droz’s most complicated and most

famous of his surviving automatons is “The Writer” – an

almost 6000 piece automaton that still functions today, a

sign to its creator’s genius. The Writer was a small doll,

which would pick up a quill of goose feather, dip it in ink,

shake it the excess ink off, and would proceed to write a

preprogrammed text in 4 lines of 10 characters each, while

its eyes follow along with the writing motion.

11 M. Kang; “Sublime Dreams of Living Machines”,

Harvard publishing (2001)

The Writer, Front view

The Writer, Back view

Pierre Jaquet-Droz’s work fit the times well – In 18th

century France, everything was perceived to be a machine.

The world was a machine operated by God, the government

was a machine conducted by the king, and the people are

machines themselves, which can be fixed by doctors.

During that fascinating time of machinery, another

mechanical craftsman rose to fame - Jacques de

Vaucanson. De Vaucanson was already well renowned for

his innovative work at the time Jaquet-Droz revealed his

writer, even commenting that Jaquet-Droz will

“…Complete what I’ve begun”12. De Vaucanson rose to

fame due not only to his showmanship, but also due to his

mechanical aptitude, creating highly sophisticated

Automata, which were revolutionary at the time, and

advanced technologies that are still used to this day.

Despite creating seemingly lifelike automata such as a

flute player that played up to 12 songs and a drummer to

drum along, De Vaucanson is most known for his smallest,

most elaborate creation – the “Canard Digérateur”, or The

Digesting Duck. The digesting duck was a masterpiece of

complexity, with up to 400 separate parts in each of his

wings alone. The duck was apparently incredibly lifelike,

being able to walk, quack, flap its wings, drink, eat, and, as

its name implies, “digest” - consume food through its beak

and defecate out the other end. Famous magician Jean-

Eugène Robert-Houdin (after whom Houdini named

himself) later revealed it to be a trick, where pellets of wet

12 Baumunk/Kallinich/Sänger (Hg.): "Die Roboter

kommen! Mensch - Maschine - Kommunikation". 2007

POSTER 2017, PRAGUE MARCH 24 5

breadcrumbs and green dye were set in advance in the rear

end of the duck, to be excreted when necessary. De

Vaucanson, always in pursuit of new passions, sold the

duck in 1743. The original duck was destroyed in 1879,

and only two replicas are known to exist today.

Canard Digérateur schema

However, De Vaucanson’s legacy was much greater

than three automatons. In order to make the duck’s

digestive system reliable, he has invented the world’s first

flexible rubber tube, revolutionizing industry across

Europe. Yet his greatest contribution was the modification

of Basile Bouchon’s punch tape – a long paper tape with

holes in set locations to control a loom – into the first

recorded instance of wooden punch cards. While seemingly

minor, it marks the first real change in Automata in almost

2000 years. Before De Vaucanson’s punch cards, control of

Automata was mostly done at the mechanical level, using

intricate gears and clockwork to pre-determine all possible

behaviors of an automaton. Until the punch cards, changing

an automatons action would require disassembling it and

changing its internal mechanism, while De Vaucanson’s

punch cards allowed machines to be designed to do several

different tasks and human operators to choose which

“behavior” of the machine was required – thus becoming

one of the first instances of programmable external

controllers in history.

Word of De Vaucanson’s work has travelled far and wide,

inspiring hundreds of craftsmen to create many incredible

automata. On the other side of civilization, in 18th century

Japan, Tanaka Hisashige (田中 久重) studied his work in

his Rangaku (Western studies) classes. Tanaka was one

Japan’s greatest engineers, and his skill was renowned: at

the request of his lord, he built Japan’s first Steam engine

from nothing but a Dutch reference book and seeing a

demonstration of one by Count Yevfimy Vasilyevich

Putyatin, a Russian diplomat. Later in his life, he moved to

Roppongi, a neighborhood in today’s Tokyo, and started

his company - Tanaka Seisakusho – which his son renamed

as Shibaura Engineering Works. After a merger in 1939

with another company called Tokyo Denki, it became

Tokyo Shibaura Denki, or as we know it today, Toshiba.

Tanaka’s most famous work is in fact one of his first – a

Karakuri (Japanese Automaton Doll) called Bow Shooting

Boy. This automaton was delicate and complex, and its

mechanism bore subtle hints of French automaton design.

The Bow Shooting boy was a statue of a boy in a Kimono,

sitting on a pedestal and holding a bow. When activated,

the automaton would bow down, pick an arrow from an

automatic quiver, load it unto his bow, and fire up to four

arrows at a target.

Bow Shooting boy, Toshiba corporation collection

The Automaton is powered by a complex set of gears,

most of them hidden away in its base. The most impressive

part of the automaton is its durability – as most of the

mechanism is made of precision-crafted gears and parts,

the only parts that decayed were several strings – meaning

that with minor adjustments, the automaton still functions

today in its original form.

Many of these automatons were considered as

miracles at the time – acts of witchcraft and sorcery,

granting inanimate objects reason and intellect, and

commanded fear as much as admiration. Thousands of

years of myths regarding intelligent machines seem to have

come true to the observers of these automatons, who would

often feel that the machines were alive. However, unlike

the automatons of myth and legend, the aforementioned

automatons would have been lifeless, and their behavior

would have been scripted to the finest detail. A small

6 GIL GOLDMAN, MILESTONES IN ROBOT AND AUTOMATON HISTORY

change in the way they were handled would have shattered

the illusion, reminding all that there were just machines.

These automatons would be considered in today’s terms

read only programmable computers, and the first steps

humanity took on its journey to automate the mind.

3. Robots of the Present

Somewhere along the way, humanity has discovered

the benefit of delegating our physical labor to machines.

Eventually, we also realized the huge potential of

delegating not only physical tasks, as was done with the

plough and the tractor, but also thinking tasks and

decisions. In this section we will cover a few examples of

machines, which have been built with this idea in mind:

industrial, service, and entertainment robots.

3.1 Industrial Robotics – The first steps

Today we see industrial robotics as this giant field,

encompassing everything from how we build cars to how

we operate the International Space Station. However it all

had a rather humble, clumsy and clunky beginning – the

Unimate.

Joseph Engelberger and George Davol built Unimate,

the first recognized industrial robot, in 1959. Davol, a

master engineer and inventor of the barcode13 who patented

his “Programmed Article Transfer”14 in 1954, met

Engelberger in 1956 in a cocktail party. Upon discussing

their mutual love of science fiction literature, particularly

that of Isaac Asimov, Davol told Engelberger about his

patent. Engelberger, excited about the possibilities of such

machines, have taken it upon him to see Davol’s machine

come to life, and in 1959 their effort came to fruition in a

prototype - the Unimate #001.

The Unimate was designed with Asimov’s first rule of

robotics in mind – “A robot may not injure a human being

or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to

harm”15. This idea Engelberger, the more business

shrewdness of the two, used to the fullest – pitching the

Unimate #001 specifically for jobs dangerous for humans,

eventually being deployed in 1959 in a General Motors die

casting plant in Trenton, New jersey.

The nearly 2-ton robot was controlled by a crude

magnetic drum based memory system with data parity

controls, as well as a network of vacuum tubes as

13 George Munson; “Pity the Pioneer: The Rise and

Fall of Unimation, Inc.” Excerpt, Robot Magazine (2010)

14 Google Books, Jr Davol - US 2988237 A

15 Isaac Asimov, “Runaround” (1942),

Astounding Science Fiction, Published by Street

and Smith Publishing

switches16, and was created to be versatile – the robot was

had a crude arm shape, which palm could be replaced

depending on the task which it faced17. The Unimate could,

when outfitted with the correct “palm” and with only minor

changes to its “program”, move objects around, weld, pour

a beer, and even conduct the Tonight’s Show band18. The

Unimate, being the first of its kind, was slow, bulky, and

expensive – despite being a revolutionary product, Davol

and Engelberger’s company, Unimation inc, showed its

first profit in 197519.

Demonstration of the Unimate #1, The Tonight show

On the opposite end of the scale lies Amazon’s

Robotic warehouse – the latest in industrial robotics. In

March 2012, Amazon purchased Kiva systems, a robotic

logistics company, starting the largest non-governmental

effort to employ robots in logistics to date.

The Robotic warehouse designed and built by Kiva is

a form of advanced distributed robotic system. Once an

order is placed, the system locates the nearest Kiva Bot, a

small, electrically powered orange AGV (Automated

Guided Vehicle), which then heads to a storage unit, which

holds the item, connects to it, and moves the entire unit to a

pick up point. It then waits with the entire unit until

dismissed, at which point it returns it to its place, and the

system then sends the bot to its next mission. The entire

warehouse is governed by a system, which uses the tiny

robots to bring storage units to the human operators rather

than having the workers search the warehouse manually for

each item.

16 Jeremy Norman; “History of information: The First

Industrial Robot” (2004)

17 Sean McCollum; The Fascinating, Fantastic

Unusual History of Robots (2011), Capstone Press

18 “A Tribute to Joseph Engelberger” (2016),

Robotics.org

19 J. Norman; “History of information: The First

Industrial Robot”(2004)

POSTER 2017, PRAGUE MARCH 24 7

Kiva Bots in action, Amazon Warehouse

The exact mechanisms and workings of the Kiva Bots

are a closely guarded secret, and shortly after being bought

by Amazon the company did not renew any of its previous

contracts, focusing on improving the internal operations of

Amazon instead.

3.2 Service robotics – The gateway to

society

Services to humanity take many forms – from keeping

us happy to keeping us safe. When it comes to robots for

our safety, the first images to come to mind are those of

Bomb Disposal Robots.

One of the most common bomb disposal robots in

service today is the TALON robot, used by the Czech

military and police since 2012.

TALON EOD

The TALON is known as one of the fastest robots of

its kind, known for its durability and versatility. The

TALON is a mobile, remote controlled platform outfitted

with an extendable arm. It is usually outfitted with a variety

of sensors and cameras used to assess the threats faced by

it, a wireless and and fiber-optic cable communication

interface, and more. The Czech and Israeli armies, as well

as the American forces in Iraq, have demonstrated the

TALON’s versatility. During its deployment in Iraq, it

became the first robot to draw blood in the war, when it

was outfitted with a remotely-operated Claymore mine and

sent on reconnaissance missions. Its continued use by so

many organizations led to many outfits and upgrades to the

basic platform – some for better monitoring, others for

work in Hazmat environments, and some even for

combat20.

Modified TALON with combat extensions

However, security and war are not all a robot can do,

and applications to everyday services are being explored by

the giants of the robotics industry, locked in an arms race to

be the first to create a robot that can successfully interact

with people.

Leading the race is the Honda company with its

flagship robot Asimo. Asimo stands for Advanced Step in

Innovative Mobility, and is the product of many years of

development: the first Honda prototype was produced in

1986 and was called the E0, which was not much more

than a pair of legs that could walk very slowly and

unsteadily. By 1988 a second prototype, the E2, was

unveiled which could walk in a slow walking speed

without support, as well as up and down stairs. The robot

division kept improving the robot until in 1993 a torso was

added to the robotic pair of legs, which combination was

named the P1. In 1996 the P2 was revealed, which added

an independent power system and control unit, making the

robot far more independent. In the year 2000, Honda

unveiled the latest in the line of its humanoid robots – the

Asimo.

Asimo stands 130 cm tall and weighs about 50 Kg,

has 57 degrees of freedom, a plethora of sensors and

cameras, and can operate independently for one hour on its

51.8 volt Lithium-Ion battery. Asimo’s goal is to be a “…

multi-functional mobile assistant”21, and has such has been

taught a variety of feats: Asimo can dance, conduct an

orchestra, push carts, pour drinks, play the violing,

recognize movements, expressions and faces, is fluent in

English and Japanese, and has even played football with

20 “TALON Tracked Military Robot”, 2017, Army-

Technology.com

21 Kornblum, Janet (22 November 2000). "Meet

Honda's ASIMO, a helpful Mr. Roboto". USA Today

8 GIL GOLDMAN, MILESTONES IN ROBOT AND AUTOMATON HISTORY

former president of the US Barak Obama. Asimo’s main

features are actually its advanced social interface – Asimo

may gesture for happiness and sadness, answer questions,

move out of humans way, and as of 2007 several Asimos

can work together as a group and coordinate activity.

Asimo, Tokyo presentation

In order to test Asimo in the real world, outside of test

labs and theme parks, Honda has deployed Asimos to act as

tour guides in Japan's National Museum of Emerging

Science and Innovation in Tokyo, to limited success22, and

as a chauffeur in Henn Na robotic hotel in Nagasaki.

While the all knowing all powerful service robots of

our imagination are still far away, specialized robots are

already able to care for our most basic needs – and they are

constantly developing.

3.3 Entertainment robots – The world’s

first Mech Duel

We constantly look to machines for entertainment –

we are absorbed by our laptops, smartphones, and

televisions daily. However, a quiet revolution is happening

without our notice – simple AI bots are keeping our Twitter

feed interesting, recommend us which series to watch next

or what article to read, and much more.

The entertainment revolution has recently been

brought into the spotlight with a wild proclamation – soon,

robots will fight for our enjoyment.

In 2012, Japanese Suidobashi Heavy Industries have

revealed to the world their creation – the 4 meters tall, 4.5

tons rideable robot called Kuratas. Kuratas is technically a

22 “Honda's ASIMO Gets New Job at Museum”,

2013, IEEE Spectrum

Mecha – a human piloted robot that acts as an extension of

the person riding it. The Kuratas is mounted on a four-

wheeled base, and is equipped with ‘weapons’ such as a

firework launcher and a pellet mini-gun.

Kuratas, Suidobashi Heavy Industries

While interesting and exciting, the Kuratas remained

anonymous until July 2015, when an American company

named MegaBots Inc. have challenged Suidobashi Heavy

Industries to an international duel – the Japanese Kuratas

vs. the American Mk. II. A week later, Suidobashi has

accepted – and the fight was on. Both participants have

been preparing their robots since, with the duel being

delayed repeatedly due to logistical issues.

MK. II, MegaBots Inc.

The duel would stand to be a milestone event in robot

history – the first time robots would fight for our

entertainment. And what an entertainment it will be.

Robots have always excited our imagination – the

idea of creating artificial life to simplify ours, to use our

brain to create beings in our image. Throughout history,

from the humble beginnings of analog computers to the

most modern of robots, we may see, like geological layers,

how each work inspired the next one, and each new

technology sparked an idea that led to more and more

incredible things.

POSTER 2017, PRAGUE MARCH 24 9

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the

immeasurable contribution of Professor Jan Mikeš,

whose dedication and determination were the main drive

behind this article.

The author would also like to acknowledge Mrs. Noa

Bar for her unyielding mental support, and Mr. Hoang

Minh Nguyen and Mr. Jakub ‘Kuba’ Srna for their

revisions, opinions, and ideas.

References

[1] Dr. Kang, Minsoo: “Sublime Dreams of Living Machines”, 2011, Hardcover

[2] Sean McCollum: “The Fascinating, Fantastic Unusual History of

Robots”, 2011

[3] Timothy Hornyak: “Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of

Japanese Robots”, 2006

About Authors...

Gil GOLDMAN, a former staff sergeant at the IDF’s

Ordenance division stationed with the Field Intelligence

corps Electro-Optronics squad, is currently a student of the

Robotics and Cybernetics course of the Faculty of

Electrical engineering at the Czech Technical University.

Robots and their history are his personal passion and has

been one of his greatest interests since childhood.