Ancient robotics

Leonardo da Vinci has built an automatic mechanical lion which was presented as a sign of homage to the new King Francis I of France in 1515. “He made a Lion, made with a marvellous mechanism, walk from its place in a room, and then it stopped and opened its chest, which was completely full of lilies and other flowers”. Fully automated wooden lion was performing different actions without electronics or wires. Recently it has been reconstructed from Leonardo's sketches and it worked! He also made a robot knight who could sit up, wave its arms, bend its legs, move its head, and open and close its jaw; a mechanical apparatus in the chest controlled arm movements, while an external crank moved the legs. An earlier drawing, from 1478, was thought for years to be the design for a spring-powered cart.

The clockwork dolls are regarded as Japan's first robots. Japanese were always interested in mechanics and robotics. Ancients were not stupid, they used technology of their times (springs, ropes, water mechanics...) and they had genious ideas. The manuscript called Karakuri Zui (sometimes read as Kikou Zui) or "Illustrated Machinery" was written by Hanzo Hosokawa, a mechanical engineer, astronomer and inventor from the domain of Tosa on Shikoku Island. The three-volume treatise details how to make four kinds of wadokei clocks and nine types of karakuri dolls including the famous tea-serving doll. Known as Japan's oldest mechanical engineering manuscript, the book has meticulously written notes on how to dress the dolls in kimono.

One thousand years ago, when Europe was still in the dark ages, China was at the forefront of technology. Whilst Europe's Renaissance is celebrated through the innovations of Leonardo da Vinci, Columbus and Renoir, few today realize that China experienced its own Renaissance fathered by the legendary Su Song five hundred years earlier.

An ancient Chinese book called, Stories of Government and the People (or Chao Ye Qian Zai), contains many fascinating tales that occurred during and before the Tang Dynasty, among which are interesting historical records about the ancient mechanical engineering technology. King Lan Ling, who lived during the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577 A.D.), was ingenious in mechanical inventions. He once made a robot that could dance and that looked like a man of a non-Chinese ethnic group. When the King wanted to offer a drink to a man, the robot would turn to that man, and bow to the man with the drink in his hand. Nobody knows what secret mechanism was inside the robot. Yin Wenliang, a county magistrate from Luozhou was a very skillful mechanical engineer and liked drinking. He created a wooden man and dressed him with an outfit made of colourful silk. At every banquet, the small wooden man would propose a toast to each guest in order. Yin Wenliang also made a wooden woman. She could play the sheng (an ancient Chinese pipe with thirteen reeds) and sing, and she did them in perfect rhythm. If a guest did not finish the wine in his cup, the wooden man wouldn’t refill the cup. If a guest did not drink enough wine, the wooden singing girl would play the sheng and sing for him to urge him to drink more. Nobody could figure out the marvellous secret of these two wooden robots.

The ancient world is littered with mythical references about automatic robotic machines. Stories such as the mythical golden robot built by Hephaistos, which would roam the island of Crete three times a day, protecting its wealth. Today, knowing the possibilities of simple ancient technology, we are not so sure if those were only myths...