Freddy the Robot
Freddy II was the world’s first thinking robot. He was designed
to perform specific tasks in the way a young child would.
He was built by researchers at the University of Edinburgh in
the early 1970s. Freddy II was designed to assemble a child's toy,
such as a ship, from a pile of random parts.
He was also taught to tidy up a set of scattered toys and put
them in a box.
Alpha-bot
This working robot arm was designed for simple, repetitive
tasks. You can tell Alphabot your name and watch it find the right
blocks to spell it out for you.
Alphabot has no eyes – so how can it write your name in blocks?
The trick is that it has a very good memory. It can remember
exactly where on the table each letter is and it always puts them
back in the same positions afterwards.
Reaction time
Are you faster than a robot? This interactive game asks you to
test your reaction times against a robot by hitting a button when
you see a light come on.
Most people take about 0.25 seconds to react. This is the time
your brain takes to notice the light and send a message to your
hand to hit the button.
If a robot is programmed to know exactly what to do when it sees
the light, it can react really quickly. But if the robot has to
plan its own reaction, like we do, it will be much slower.
Design a robot
Robots can be useful for a number of different tasks, and they
can have many characteristics. The characteristics of a robot
suitable for one task are not the same as those of a robot built
for a different task.
In this interactive game, you can design a robot for a variety
of different tasks, from bomb disposal to house cleaning. First
choose your task, then choose the various parts the robot will need
for the task. Then test your robot and make changes if you need to.
Can you find the perfect robot for the job?
Robot explorer
See how well you can program a robot to move around our
extra-terrestrial planet. Programming robots to move around
obstacles is very difficult – especially the first time you
try.
Robots that explore distant planets usually have sensors and
some ‘artificial intelligence’ to allow them to find their own way
around without being told exactly where to go.
Robot ships
Watch our virtual robot ships move about a table top. Move the
islands around the table and see how the robot ships react.
The robot ships are working together to find and clean up toxic
spills. Searcher ships find the spills and leave a train for
Clean-up ships to follow.
Scientists working in artificial intelligence are programming
robots to work like this. They base the robots’ behaviour on the
way ants or bees work together.