3871 entries. Last updated May 18, 2013.

Robotics / Automata Timeline Outline

  • Eras
  • Themes

1,000 BCE – 300 BCE

A Wooden Dove Automaton
(Circa 400 BCE)

300 BCE – 30 CE

A diagram of Ctesibius's water clock.
The First Truly Automatic Self-Regulatory Device
(Circa 250 BCE)

30 CE – 500 CE

Hero of Alexandria
Automata Invented by Hero of Alexandria
(Circa 30 CE – 70 CE)

800 – 900

A diagram of a 'self trimming lamp' from the Book of Ingenious devices, preserved in the 'Granger Collection' in New York. (View Larger)
The First Programmable Machine & the Earliest Known Mechanical Musical…
(850)

1200 – 1300

Modern replicas of Al-Jazari's automated musicians, perhaps the oldest programmable automata known. (View Larger)
First Recorded Designs of a Programmable Automaton
(1206)

A depiction of the Castle Water Clock from al-Jazari's 'Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.' This manuscript is preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. (View Larger)
Perhaps the Earliest Programmable Analog Computer
(1206)

1400 – 1450

Folio 2r of Bellicorum instrumentorum liber, showing an 'Oriental siege machine.' (View Larger)
One of the Earliest Surviving Italian Manuscripts on Technology and War…
(Circa 1420)

1450 – 1500

Leonardo Builds a Programmable Mechanical Automaton
(1478)

1550 – 1600

A Working Sixteenth Century Automaton of a Monk
(Circa 1565)

1650 – 1700

Mechanistic View of the Human Body
(1662)

1700 – 1750

A Loom Controlled by Perforated Paper Tape
(1725)

Complex Enough to Provide a Credible Imitation of Life
(1731 – 1738)

The First Automaton to Simulate Biological Processes
(1739)

1750 – 1800

The Chess-Playing Turk
(1769)

The First Successful Speech Synthesizer
(1791)

1800 – 1850

Poe Writes Maelzel's Chess Player
(April 1836)

1850 – 1875

"Darwin among the Machines"
(June 13, 1863)

"Erewhon"
(1872)

1910 – 1920

The First Decision-Making Automaton
(1912 – 1915)

1920 – 1930

Robot
(1920)

1930 – 1940

"Modern Times"
(1936)

Elektro, the Most Famous Robot of the 1930s
(1937 – 1938)

1940 – 1950

"Waldo" : Imagining Remote Manipulators and TeleRobotics
(August 1942)

The First Electronic Autonomous Robots
(1948)

Comparing the Functions of Genes to Self-Reproducing Automata
(September 20, 1948)

1950 – 1960

"Can Man Build a Superman?"
(January 23, 1950)

"The First of the True Robots"
(1951)

The First Demonstration of Computer Music
(August 7 – August 9, 1951)

First International Congress on Cybernetics
(June 26 – June 29, 1956)

1960 – 1970

Replicants
(1968)

The First Widely-Attended International Exhibition of Computer Art
(August 2 – October 20, 1968)

1980 – 1990

Blade Runner
(1982)

2000 – 2005

Conflicts between Androids and Men
(2001)

The Actroid
(November 2003 – 2007)

2005 – 2010

Robot Scientist becomes the First Machine to Discover New Scientific Knowledge
(April 3, 2009)

2010 – 2011

"The World's First Full-Size Robotic Girlfriend"
(January 9, 2010)

8,900,000 Robots are Operating World Wide
(November 2010)

2011 – 2013

The Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Automation on Jobs
(March 6, 2011)

The First Large Robotized Library
(May 16, 2011)

Free Online Artificial Intelligence Course Attracts 58,000 Students
(August 15, 2011)

Technological Unemployment: Are Robots Replacing Workers?
(January 23, 2012 – January 13, 2013)

The First Functioning Brain-Computer Interface for Quadriplegics
(May 16, 2012)

2013 – Present

The FDA Approves the First Medical Robot for Hospital Use
(January 26, 2013)

Drone Pilots Experience Stress Possibly Greater than Actual Combat Pilots
(February 23, 2013)