Automata (Towards Automation and Robots)

In the previous chapters it has been demonstrated that the knowledge of mechanics (both in the solid and in the fluid field) was present in remote centuries. The idea or the desire to build automatic devices is almost as ancient as the early knowledge in the field of mechanics. In Greek Mythology the god Hephaestus (Iliad, XVIII, vv. 519—525) built some “automata” (today we could call them androids) that helped him in his smithy. Another legend tells us that king Minos used a bronze mechanical giant, named Talos and forged by Hephaestus, to patrol the isle of Krete (Figure 15.1).

In this chapter some inventions and devices are presented in the field of automation and automata. The aim is to show the path that engineers and inventors of the past followed to reach modern devices in the field of automation.