So, the automaton breathed and played the flute for real.Ī year later (1738) he added two more automatons to his exhibition – The galoubet and tambourine player and The Digesting duck. Vaucanson managed to create a breathing system. The fascination of this device lies in a fact that it could, in fact, play a flute. The transverse flute player was a wooden figure that could play twelve tunes using a transverse flute. It seems that one of his goals was to demonstrate how things happened in nature and it seems that he was pretty good at it. Yet the information we have about these devices is quite astonishing. There were three famous automatons created by Jacques de Vaucanson. Furthermore, it was Vaucanson who envisioned how punch cards (in his case – a perforated paper roll) could be used to store a control sequence of a device – in other words a program.
The main topic of this article is automatons, he created some of the most advanced automatons of his time.Īpart from that, it was Vaucanson’s design that was later perfected by Jacquard in order to create the Jacquard’s loom. He’d probably be pretty surprised to find out his importance. Jacques Vaucanson (1709 – 1782) was a French inventor and a really important man in robotics history.
Jacques de Vaucanson A guess on how the Vaucanson’s Digesting Duck could’ve worked Together with the 19th century Age of enlightenment was a period of time when the most advanced automatons were created.īecause of numerous reasons later they started to ‘die out’, and because of numerous reasons automatons before this time were nowhere near the sophistication level of these 18th – 19th century automated devices. Age of enlightenment and the 19th centuryĪge of enlightenment in Europe is a timespan from the middle of 17th century until the start of 19th century. The purpose of this article is to tell you something about some of the most advanced automatons that have made a serious impact on the way people understand technology and what it’s capable of. In either case, I won’t go much into detail on these. On the other hand, there are some stories that seem like fiction to me. There are other stories like these, that seem quite plausible. Also, Salomon de Caus created a singing bird automaton. Some of these stories are feasible and verifiable, while some are quite implausible.įor example – it is said that Gianello della Tour of Cremona created several automatons. There were others who have purportedly created automatons too. One of the most renown scientists of this time is of course – Leonardo da Vinci. Among other fields some of them were interested in automated devices too. Many widely known scientists and engineers lived during this time. Villard de Honnecourt is one notable example.Īt the time or Renaissance (15th – 17th centuries) there was an increased interest in the works of antique cultures. What’s known for sure is, that there were people in Medieval Europe who tampered with automatons. Not that Europe was in some kind of ‘dark times’ it’s just the amount of sources we have. Next important time in history from this point of view is 8th to 13th century A.D., particularly – the Islamic world. You can read it if you haven’t done that already. I won’t go into much detail about this as I’ve already done it in my ‘Ancient robots’ article. Before the term ‘robot’ was invented there were automatons (or automata) and before that… well, there certainly was something.Įither real or mythical but automated, ‘artificially alive’ devices have been with us since the antiquity. Today, when we have electronics and all these technologies we call them robots or at least ‘robotic’. Or at least something that creates such an impression. Indeed, back then when there were no electronics, fancy controllers, or a plethora of programming environments people still wanted to create something… alive. I like to think of them as of precursors of robots, or at least as precursors of some robots.
They can be but not necessarily are capable of some useful functions. In either case, what usually are understood as them are self-operating, moving, non-electronic devices that resemble humans, animals or other animate beings. I wished to start with a definition of automatons but I couldn’t find one that satisfies me.
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