The History of the First Robot

This lecture explores the long history of robots, starting 2300 years ago with the ancestors of robots, such as the Babylonian clepsidra. It covers the development of automatic goods machines, medieval entertainment machines, and the golden age of vending machines in the 18th and 19th centuries. The lecture also delves into the case of the mechanical Turk, a chess-playing vending machine from 1770, and the Swiss watchmakers who created human-like machines in the computer age. It concludes with a discussion on bioinspiration and bionics in the development of robots, emphasizing nature's role as a source of inspiration for scientific advancements.