Robotics Pioneers
Robots on Screen
Robotics History
Emerging Robots in SV
Acronym Decoder
100
This author wrote "I, Robot" and coined the famous "Three Laws of Robotics"
Who is Isaac Asimov?
100
This trash-compacting Pixar robot fell in love with EVE while cleaning up Earth.
What is WALL·E?
100
The term “robot” comes from this language, meaning “forced labor” or “servant.”
What is Czech?
100
Based in Berkeley, this small, sidewalk-traveling robot delivers food and groceries to students on college campuses, navigating sidewalks and crosswalks on its own.
What is Kiwibot?
100
This open-source framework, widely used in robotics for controlling hardware and writing robot software, is abbreviated ROS.
What is Robot Operating System?
200
He led the creation of Shakey the Robot at SRI in the 1960s, one of the first robots to use AI planning.
Who is Charles Rosen?
200
This wisecracking maid kept the Jetsons’ futuristic house in order.
Who is Rosie?
200
Introduced in 2000, this humanoid robot from Japan became a milestone in robotics history as one of the first capable of walking, running, and recognizing faces.
What is Honda?
200
This nimble four-legged robot, often seen in Silicon Valley demonstrations, can climb stairs, navigate rough terrain, and is used for inspection and research tasks.
What is Spot?
200
A common technique in robotics for mapping an environment while simultaneously tracking a robot’s location is abbreviated SLAM.
What is Simultaneous Localization and Mapping?
300
Before robots could explore space, this Black NASA mathematician’s calculations helped send astronauts into orbit and to the Moon.
Who is Katherine Johnson?
300
This towering “more than meets the eye” leader of the Autobots transforms into a semi truck.
Who is Optimus Prime?
300
Founded in 1990, this company made the Roomba, one of the first commercially successful autonomous home robots.
What is iRobot?
300
Hailing from Seattle but with a strong R&D presence in Silicon Valley, this home assistant robot moves around your house delivering reminders, playing music, and integrating with smart home devices.
What is Astro?
300
This type of sensor, often used in autonomous vehicles and drones, uses laser light to measure distance and create 3D maps, abbreviated LiDAR.
What is Light Detection and Ranging?
400
Before inventing the Super Soaker, this Black engineer worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on systems for space missions that used robotic probes.
Who is Lonnie Johnson?
400
This droid, introduced in Star Wars: A New Hope, speaks in beeps and boops rather than words.
Who is R2-D2?
400
Debuting in the early 2000s, this robotic-assisted surgical system revolutionized minimally invasive surgery.
What is the da Vinci Surgical System?
400
Headquartered in Mountain View, this autonomous freight truck is designed to transport goods on highways without a human driver.
What is the Kodiak Driver?
400
A control loop mechanism widely used in robotics to maintain a desired setpoint is abbreviated PID.
What is Proportional-Integral-Derivative?
500
This Black inventor co-created the electret microphone, used in 90% of microphones today—including those that let robots “hear.”
Who is James West?
500
In the 2014–2015 sci-fi series Extant, starring Halle Berry as astronaut Molly Woods, this humanoid robot is portrayed as her son.
Who is Ethan Woods?
500
Launched in 2012, this challenge pushed teams worldwide to develop humanoid robots capable of performing complex tasks in disaster scenarios, advancing autonomy, mobility, and manipulation.
What is the DARPA Robotics Challenge?
500
Developed by Agility Robotics in Albany, California, this bipedal robot walks like a human, can pick up and carry packages with its arms, and navigate stairs, making it a versatile delivery and logistics robot.
What is Digit?
500
This algorithm, abbreviated RANSAC, is used in robotics vision to robustly fit models to data even in the presence of outliers.
What is Random Sample Consensus?
