"Tortoise" Mobile Robot

"Tortoise" Mobile Robot

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Description
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?
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.
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.
Location
Currently not on view
Object Name
robot
date made
ca 1950
place made
United Kingdom
Physical Description
plastic, metal (overall materials)
Measurements
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
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
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
ID Number
1993.0500.01
accession number
1993.0500
catalog number
1993.0500.01
Credit Line
Dr. F. W. and J. Merlyn Clutterbuck
See more items in
Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Robots and Automatons
Science & Mathematics
Data Source
National Museum of American History
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