History & Evolution of Robotics – Vocabulary Flashcards

120 vocabulary flashcards summarizing key people, companies, robots, and milestones from the lecture notes on the history and evolution of robotics.

Karel Čapek

Czech playwright who first used the word “robot” in his 1920 play R.U.R.

Isaac Asimov

American science-fiction author who coined “robotics” and wrote the Three Laws of Robotics.

Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance polymath who sketched a mechanical knight, an early humanoid robot concept (1495).

George Devol

Inventor who patented Unimate (1954), the first programmable industrial robot arm.

Joseph Engelberger

Co-founder of Unimation; widely called the “Father of Robotics.”

Hero of Alexandria

1st-century engineer who built steam-powered automata for entertainment.

Al-Jazari

Medieval Islamic engineer who created programmable water clocks and humanoid automata (1206).

Masahiro Mori

Japanese researcher who proposed the Uncanny Valley theory (1970).

Hiroshi Ishiguro

Japanese roboticist known for lifelike androids such as Geminoid HI-4 and ERICA.

Marc Raibert

Founder & CEO of Boston Dynamics, maker of BigDog, Spot, and Atlas.

Cynthia Breazeal

MIT roboticist who created the expressive robot head Kismet and founded social-robotics research.

Dean Kamen

Inventor of the Segway and founder of the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Rodney Brooks

MIT professor, pioneer of subsumption architecture; co-developed Cog and founded iRobot & Rethink Robotics.

Victor Scheinman

Co-creator of the Stanford Arm, one of the first all-electric 6-axis manipulators (1969).

Scott Hassan

Founder of Willow Garage; key force behind the open-source Robot Operating System (ROS).

iRobot

Massachusetts company that released the Roomba (2002) and PackBot military robot.

Boston Dynamics

Robotics firm known for legged and humanoid robots—BigDog, Spot, Atlas, Stretch.

Honda

Japanese automaker that developed the ASIMO humanoid robot (2000).

Sony

Electronics giant that produced the AIBO robotic dog and entertainment humanoid QRIO.

Hanson Robotics

Hong Kong–based company behind the humanoid robots Sophia and Grace.

ABB Robotics

Swiss-Swedish firm producing industrial arms like the IRB series.

KUKA Robotics

German company famous for orange industrial robot arms used in factories worldwide.

Fanuc Corporation

Japanese manufacturer of yellow factory robots and CNC controls; major automation supplier.

Yaskawa Electric

Producer of Motoman industrial robots and Dual-Arm SCARA medical robots.

Universal Robots

Danish firm that popularized lightweight collaborative robot arms (cobots).

Franka Emika GmbH

German startup making the lightweight, sensitive Franka Panda cobot.

Intuitive Surgical

Company that pioneered robot-assisted surgery with the da Vinci system (2000).

PAL Robotics

Spanish company behind REEM-C and TIAGo humanoids for research and service.

ANYbotics

Swiss firm that built ANYmal, a quadruped for autonomous industrial inspection.

Agility Robotics

U.S. company that created the bipedal delivery robot Digit and the earlier Cassie platform.

Figure AI

Startup developing GPT-enabled general-purpose humanoid robots like Figure 01.

Sanctuary AI

Canadian company aiming for human-equivalent labor robots such as Phoenix.

Tesla Bot (Optimus)

Humanoid robot project announced by Elon Musk in 2021 for general labor tasks.

DARPA Robotics Challenge

2013–2015 competition pushing disaster-response humanoid robots; won by DRC-HUBO (KAIST).

Robot Operating System (ROS)

Open-source middleware (2007) that standardised how robots share data and software components.

FIRST Robotics Competition

High-school robotics contest founded in 1992 to inspire STEM careers.

RoboCup

International robotic soccer competition launched in 1997 to advance AI collaboration.

SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)

Algorithmic method allowing robots to build a map while tracking their position; first demoed at Oxford.

Unimate

First industrial robot installed in a GM plant in 1961 for die-casting operations.

SHAKEY

SRI International’s mobile robot (1966) able to reason about its actions using AI.

Stanford Arm

All-electric 6-axis manipulator (1969) that set a benchmark for precision control.

WABOT-1

World’s first full-scale humanoid robot (1973, Japan) capable of walking and simple communication.

PUMA Robot Arm

Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly (1978); became an industry standard manipulator.

SCARA Robot

Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm (1981) designed for fast pick-and-place in electronics.

ASIMO

Honda humanoid (2000) noted for smooth walking, climbing, and running.

Kismet

MIT robot head (2000) that displayed facial expressions and responded to human emotion.

Da Vinci Surgical System

Robotic platform (2000) enabling minimally invasive telesurgery.

Roomba

Autonomous vacuum cleaner released by iRobot in 2002; popularized home robots.

BigDog

Boston Dynamics quadruped (2005) designed for rough-terrain military transport.

Nao

Small programmable humanoid introduced by Aldebaran Robotics (2006) and widely used in education.

Robot Operating System (ROS)

Open-source framework (2007) providing tools and libraries for robot software.

iCub

Child-sized open-source humanoid (2008) developed at IIT for cognitive robotics research.

Paro

Therapeutic robotic baby seal (FDA-approved 2009) used in dementia and elder care.

Bina48

Social robot (2010) modeled on a real person’s memories and personality.

Robonaut 2

NASA/GM humanoid (2011) and first robot to operate aboard the International Space Station.

Baxter

Collaborative industrial robot (2012) by Rethink Robotics designed to be safe around humans.

Atlas

Boston Dynamics humanoid (2013) known for dynamic balance and parkour.

Pepper

SoftBank humanoid (2014) able to perceive emotions and engage customers.

AlphaGo

DeepMind AI that defeated a Go champion (2016), showcasing deep learning power also applied to robotics.

Zipline

Drone-delivery company (launched 2016) transporting medical supplies in Rwanda and beyond.

Cafe X

Robotic barista startup (2017) automating coffee preparation with articulated arms.

Mini Cheetah

MIT quadruped (2019) capable of backflips and agile locomotion.

OpenAI Rubik’s Cube Demo

2019 project where a robotic hand solved a cube using reinforcement learning and simulation.

Moxie

Embodied, Inc. social learning robot (2020) designed to aid child development.

Stretch (Hello Robot)

Compact mobile manipulator (2021) specialized for home and warehouse tasks.

GPT-3

Large language model (2020) that sparked natural-language robot control interfaces.

ChatGPT

Conversational AI (2022) enabling robots to follow verbal instructions and explain actions.

GR00T (NVIDIA)

2025 multimodal AI combining language and vision for general-purpose robotics.

RoboBee

Harvard micro-robot (2013 prototype) mimicking insect flight for pollination and surveillance research.

Swarmanoid

IRIDIA project combining aerial, ground, and climbing robots for cooperative tasks.

Shadow Robot Company

UK firm building anthropomorphic robotic hands with advanced dexterity.

ETH Zurich ReZero Ballbot

Self-balancing robot moving on a single sphere designed for agile indoor navigation.

Wyss Institute

Harvard research center pioneering soft-bodied, biohybrid, and medical micro-robots.

DARPA Grand Challenge

2004 desert race that jump-started autonomous vehicle development.

MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab

Group behind Cheetah-series quadrupeds and Mini Cheetah.

EPFL SwarmBots

Swiss research into collective robot behavior inspired by insects.

Knightscope K5

Fully autonomous security patrol robot used in malls and campuses.

Amazon Robotics

Division formed after Amazon acquired Kiva Systems (2012) to automate warehouses.

Skydio

U.S. company producing AI-guided autonomous drones for inspection and filming.

OpenAI Codex

2021 model that writes code from natural language, enabling rapid robot programming.

International Federation of Robotics (IFR)

Organization that tracks global robot statistics and sets industry standards.

Marco Dorigo

Pioneer of swarm robotics and collective robot intelligence using stigmergy.

Kate Darling

MIT researcher studying robot ethics and human–robot relationships.

Norbert Wiener

Mathematician who founded cybernetics, forming the basis of feedback control in robotics.

Joseph Marie Jacquard

Inventor of the punch-card-controlled Jacquard loom (1801), a precursor to programmable machines.

Charles Babbage

Proposed the Analytical Engine (1837), an early programmable mechanical computer.

George Boole

Created Boolean algebra (1854), fundamental to digital logic and robot decision-making.

Turing Test

1950 proposal by Alan Turing to evaluate machine intelligence through conversation.

Three Laws of Robotics

Asimov’s 1942 fictional ethical guidelines still referenced in robotics discussions.

Stanford Robotics Lab

Research group integrating machine learning with mechanical design for next-gen robots.

DeepMind

Google AI division advancing reinforcement learning for embodied agents and manipulation.

Demis Hassabis

Co-founder of DeepMind; influential in combining AI and robotics for learning tasks.

Andrew Ng

Co-founder of Google Brain; advocate for deep learning in robotic perception and control.

Gill Pratt

CEO of Toyota Research Institute, focusing on assistive and partner robots.

Conor Walsh

Harvard engineer pioneering soft robotic exosuits for human augmentation.

Hugh Herr

MIT bionics leader integrating robotic limbs with the nervous system.

Rolf Pfeifer

Roboticist who popularized the concept of “embodied intelligence.”

Hod Lipson

Columbia professor known for evolutionary robotics and self-reconfiguring machines.

Sheila Russo

Soft-robotics pioneer focusing on inflatable, flexible robotic mechanisms.

Daniela Rus

MIT CSAIL director; developed self-folding origami robots and modular M-Blocks.