"Googling" Robotic's History

My friend and fellow roboticist, Carol Lynn Hazlett, asked recently where I get information like that in the article posted below about Robbie the Robot.

The answer is simple - occasionally I just spend some time "Googling."

Two discoveries of interest - just in the past week...

Reuben and a Grey Walter Tortoise

Reuben Hoggett has had a life-long interest in robots. Reuben has cataloged significant detail on other cybernetic and pre-cybernetic animals, as well as other anthropomorphic forms of robots over the last century at his website cyberneticzoo.com. His Facebook page is here - Cybernetic Zoo. I could spend hours looking around this site (and have!) I recently emailed Mr. Hoggett to thank him for this work! Reuben was born, lives, and works in Melbourne, Australia. Check it out!

Mr. Hoggett's friendship with robot builder and historian David Buckley meant that I also found a link to Mr. Buckley's website of robot history. It is here at www.davidbuckley.net 

What is most amazing about all of this is that David Buckley's work includes the design of walking robots which are the direct ancestors of the Parallax Toddler and Penguin robots! Here is a bit of the history found in the Parallax Forums: Parallax based its walking robot design on Buckley's two servo driven robots.

Bigfoot was sold by Milford Instruments as a wood kit.
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/BigFoot.htm 

Amber has a lineage of six.
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Ambler.htm 

Tom
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Tom/Tom.htm 

Junior
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Junior/Junior.htm 

Strider
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Strider/Strider.htm 

TecFoot
http://www.davidbuckley.net/DB/Strider/Strider.htm

And this comes from the Toddler Documentation - Advanced Robotics with the Toddler,

"Although Parallax designed the Toddler, we recognize that the first time we have seen the two-servo concept employed for a walking robot is British robotics designer David Buckley’s Big Foot. Though the basic concept is simple, our research shows that Mr. Buckley created the ingenious use of two servos for a walker. Big Foot is a plywood kit available through Milford Instruments (www.milinst.com) of the United Kingdom. David Buckley endorses the Parallax Toddler robot and contributed to the Toddler design." 

What a small world! Go take a look around at Reuben's and David's websites. I promise you will have fun and learn something you did not know!