Antiquity → 20th c.
The History of Robots
机器人历史
From ancient automata and clockwork marvels to the first programmable machines — the long human dream of building life.
From the curator
The dream of building life is older than electricity. This gallery traces it from water clocks and clockwork ducks to the first machine that could be told what to do — and do it again tomorrow.
Timeline
- c.60Hero of Alexandria describes self-operating machines and a programmable cart
- c.1206Al-Jazari documents programmable automata in his Book of Knowledge
- 1495Leonardo da Vinci sketches a mechanical knight
- 1738Vaucanson exhibits the mechanical 'Digesting Duck'
- 1921The word 'robot' is coined in Karel Čapek's play R.U.R.
- 1948Grey Walter's autonomous 'tortoises' show lifelike behaviour
- 1961Unimate, the first industrial robot, enters service
Official films
Curated via the YouTube Data API and embedded through the official player — no downloads, creators credited.
Artifacts and media for this gallery are sourced from the m591 asset vault — open-license images (with attribution) and officially-embedded video only.