Big Trak - an 80's programmable robot
|
It might surprise robotic lovers to know that toy robots started popping up as far back in history as the 1940's, possibly even the 1930's. It was the Japanese who first started to build recreational robots, and as you can imagine, they were very basic creations. Not the hi tech gadget bots we have today.
If you're interested in reading more about early robots, then I highly recommend you read through The History Of Robots. This is a really good factual account of the rise of toy robots in the 1900's.
One of the most famous 'retro robos' was the 80's toy, Big Trak. This was a 6 wheeled Programmable Toy Robot which had a keypad on it's back. It actually didn't look much like a robot
Today we have the incredible Sony Aibo. Not specifically a Programmable Toy Robot, because it is not directly given commands. Instead it can learn behaviour and is programmed to grown and learn about it's environment. It's not just a case of pumping buttons and then waiting for a response.
|