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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
The hand–eye systems described earlier might be thought of as “robots,” but they could not move about from their fixed base. Up to this time, very little work had been done on mobile robots even though they figured prominently in science fiction. I have already mentioned Grey Walter's “tortoises,” which were early versions of autonomous mobile robots. In the early 1960s researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built a mobile robot they called “The Beast.” (See Fig. 12.1.) Controlled by on-board electronics and guided by sonar sensors, photocells, and a “wallplate-feeling” arm, it could wander the white-walled corridors looking for dark-colored power plugs. Upon finding one, and if its batteries were low, it would plug itself in and recharge its batteries. The system is described in a book by Hans Moravec.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, several groups began working on mobile robots. These included the AI Labs at SRI and at Stanford. I'll begin with an extended description of the SRI robot project for it provided the stimulus for the invention and integration of several important AI technologies.
Shakey, the SRI Robot
In November 1963, Charles Rosen, the leader of neural-network research at SRI, wrote a memo in which he proposed development of a mobile “automaton” that would combine the pattern-recognition and memory capabilities of neural networks with higher level AI programs – such as were being developed at MIT, Stanford, CMU, and elsewhere. Rosen had previously attended a summer course at UCLA on LISP given by Bertram Raphael, who was finishing his Ph.D. (on SIR) at MIT.
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