Robot timeline 320 B.C.-2008

• 320 B.C.- The first idea of a robot came from the Greek philosopher Aristotle.  He had said "“If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it... then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.”
• 1495 - Around this year the famous designer Leonardo da Vinci drew a model for a humanoid robot.
• 1700-1900 - Between these years several automatons were made.  One of which was a mechanical duck that could do several actions such as flapping its wings, moving its neck and eating food.  This was made by Jacques de Vaucanson. Example Below.
• 1913 - Henry Ford makes and installs the first moving conveyor belt assembly line in his car factory speeding up the production time.
• 1920 - The word robot is first introduced by Karel Capek.  He used the word to describe the machines that resemble humans which had enslaved society by the robots that had served the people in his play Rossums Universal Robots.
• 1932 - Japan made the first real robot which was a small wind-up toy about 15 cm tall that walked on its own.
• 1937 - Alan Turing's paper "On Computable Numbers" becomes public which starts the computer revolution.
• 1941 - Isaac Asimov writes the short story "Liar!" where he describes the Three laws of robotics which are   
• 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
• 2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
• 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
• 1950 - Alan Turing creates what later becomes know as the "Turing Test" which is to determine if a machine could truly think for itself and to pass the robot must not be different than a human during conversation.
• 1954 - The first robot "arm" is made by George Devol and Joe Engleberger.  This robot later became the first robot to work at an industry.  It worked at General Motors doing dangerous and repetitive tasks.
• 1957 - Sputnik is launched into space by The Russians.  Sputnik was the first artificial orbiting satelite.
• 1964 - The IBM 360 becomes the first computer to be mass-produced.
• 1969 - Neil Armstrong lands on the moon by the U.S. using the latest space, robotic and computing technology.
• 1977 - The movie Star Wars is released inspiring many new researchers because of the famous robots R2-D2 and C-3PO.
• 1986 - Honda launches a program to build a walking humanoid robot.
• 1994 - The eight legged robot Dante II successfully  descends into Mt. Spur to collect gas samples.
• 1997 - The robot "Deep Blue" beats the world chess champion Garry Kasparov at a game of chess.  Also the first robocup is held in Japan.
• 1998 - The company LEGO releases its first Robotics Inventions System.
• 1999 - Sony releases a robotic dog called AIBO which had the ability to learn, entertain and communicate with the owner as if it were a real dog.
• 2000 - The robot ASIMO is released by Honda.  ASIMO was the next generation of humanoid robots for its series.
• 2004 - The smallest robot is released by Epsom.  It is a tiny helicopter 7 cm high and weighs 10 grams.  This helicopter was intended to be used during natural disasters as a flying camera.
• 2005 - The first replicating robot was made by researchers from Cornell University.  Each robot was made up of a small tower of computerized cubes which linked together through magnets.
• 2008 - The Robotic vacuum cleaner called "Roomba" has sold over 2.5 million units throughout the world.
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• Information From   http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/technology/historyofrobotics.html