The History of Lego Robotics

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In 1980, Seymour Papert wrote a book called, Mindstorms: children, computers and powerful ideas, where he implies that learning by constructing is extremely important in life.

Then in 1998, LEGO company released the first ever Robotics invention systems TM 1.0. The LEGO company named the product line Mindstorms, after Seymour Paperts important work in 1980.

 

Below, are the critical dates in the history of Robotics:

~ 350 B.C
A Greek mathematician, Archytas ('ahr 'ky tuhs')  built a mechanical bird he called "the Pigeon" . It had a steam propeller and was likely first model airplane.



1495
Leonardo DaVinci designed a robotic armored knight, which looked as if a real person was inside.

1801
Joseph Jacquard built an automated loom controlled with punched cards. This type of card was later used for our early computers.

1940
 Issac Asimov wrote short stories about robots starting with "A Strange Playfellow" (later renamed "Robbie") for Super Science Stories magazine. Asimov's stories are thought to be the origin of the  term "Robotics" . Asimov also had Three Laws of Robotics:
 

  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 the orders given 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.
     
He aslo had a "zeroth law" :
 
Zeroth law: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

 

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 1962
The first industrial arm robot was produced. It did repetitious or dangerous tasks on a General Motors (car company) assembly line.

1967
A program was written to play chess!   When the program was finished and a famous chess master was invited to play the computer, he lost in a tight match.

1980
 Seymour Papert publishes Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas where he tells people that learning through doing "constructionism" is important.


1998
 LEGO released their first Robotics Invention SystemTM 1.0. LEGO names the product line MINDSTORMS after Seymour Papert's important work of 1980.

1999
 LEGO released The Robotics Discovery Set, Droid Developer Kit and the Robotics Invention System 1.5.

2000
 LEGO released the MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention SystemTM 2.0

2001

LEGO released the MINDSTORMS Ultimate Builder's Set
 

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