A postulated interior of the Duck of Vaucanson (1738-1739)
Pinocchio automaton.
An automaton (/ɔːˈtɒmətən/; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine,
or a machine or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a
predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined
instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers
in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the casual
observer that they are operating under their own power. Since long ago
the term is commonly associated with automated puppets that resemble
moving humans or animals, built to impress and/or to entertain people.
Animatronics are a modern type of automata with electronics, often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions.
Etymology
The word "automaton" is the latinization of the Greek αὐτόματον, automaton, (neuter) "acting of one's own will". This word was first used by Homer to describe automatic door opening, or automatic movement of wheeled tripods.
It is more often used to describe non-electronic moving machines,
especially those that have been made to resemble human or animal
actions, such as the jacks on old public striking clocks, or the cuckoo and any other animated figures on a cuckoo clock.
History
Ancient
The book About automata by Hero of Alexandria (1589 edition)
There are many examples of automata in Greek mythology: Hephaestus created automata for his workshop; Talos was an artificial man of bronze; Daedalus used quicksilver to install voice in his moving statues; King Alkinous of the Phaiakians employed gold and silver watchdogs.
The automata in the Hellenistic world
were intended as tools, toys, religious idols, or prototypes for
demonstrating basic scientific principles. Numerous water powered
automata were built by Ktesibios, a Greek inventor and the first head of the Great Library of Alexandria, for example he "used water to sound a whistle and make a model owl move. He had invented the world's first "cuckoo" clock".[a] This tradition continued in Alexandria with inventors such as the Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (sometimes known as Heron), whose writings on hydraulics, pneumatics, and mechanics described siphons, a fire engine, a water organ, the aeolipile, and a programmable cart.
The Antikythera mechanism from 150–100 BC was designed to calculate the positions of astronomical objects.
Complex mechanical devices are known to have existed in Hellenistic Greece, though the only surviving example is the Antikythera mechanism, the earliest known analog computer. The clockwork is thought to have come originally from Rhodes, where there was apparently a tradition of mechanical engineering; the island was renowned for its automata; to quote Pindar's seventh Olympic Ode:
- The animated figures stand
- Adorning every public street
- And seem to breathe in stone, or
- move their marble feet.
However, the information gleaned from recent scans of the fragments indicate that it may have come from the colonies of Corinth in Sicily and implies a connection with Archimedes.
According to Jewish legend, Solomon used his wisdom to design a throne
with mechanical animals which hailed him as king when he ascended it;
upon sitting down an eagle would place a crown upon his head, and a dove
would bring him a Torah
scroll. It is also said that when King Solomon stepped upon the throne,
a mechanism was set in motion. As soon as he stepped upon the first
step, a golden ox and a golden lion each stretched out one foot to
support him and help him rise to the next step. On each side, the
animals helped the King up until he was comfortably seated upon the
throne.
In ancient China, a curious account of automata is found in the Lie Zi
text, believed to have originated around 400 BCE and compiled around
the fourth century CE. Within it there is a description of a much
earlier encounter between King Mu of Zhou
(1023-957 BCE) and a mechanical engineer known as Yan Shi, an
'artificer'. The latter proudly presented the king with a very realistic
and detailed life-size, human-shaped figure of his mechanical
handiwork:
The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time...As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yen Shih [Yan Shi] executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles, bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them artificial...The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their power of locomotion. The king was delighted.
The 5th-century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban are attributed with the invention of artificial wooden birds (ma yuan) that could successfully fly, according to the Han Fei Zi.
Other notable examples of automata include Archytas' dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius. Similar Chinese accounts of flying automata are written of the 5th century BC Mohist philosopher Mozi and his contemporary Lu Ban, who made artificial wooden birds (ma yuan) that could successfully fly according to the Han Fei Zi and other texts.
Medieval
The manufacturing tradition of automata continued in the Greek world well into the Middle Ages. On his visit to Constantinople in 949 ambassador Liutprand of Cremona described automata in the emperor Theophilos' palace, including
"lions, made either of bronze or wood covered with gold, which struck the ground with their tails and roared with open mouth and quivering tongue," "a tree of gilded bronze, its branches filled with birds, likewise made of bronze gilded over, and these emitted cries appropriate to their species" and "the emperor's throne" itself, which "was made in such a cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher and was to be seen up in the air."
Similar automata in the throne room (singing birds, roaring and
moving lions) were described by Luitprand's contemporary, the Byzantine
emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his book Περὶ τῆς Βασιλείου Τάξεως.
In the mid-8th century, the first wind powered automata were built: "statues that turned with the wind over the domes of the four gates and the palace complex of the Round City of Baghdad". The "public spectacle of wind-powered statues had its private counterpart in the 'Abbasid palaces where automata of various types were predominantly displayed." Also in the 8th century, the Muslim alchemist, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Geber), included recipes for constructing artificial snakes, scorpions, and humans that would be subject to their creator's control in his coded Book of Stones. In 827, Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad,
which had the features of an automatic machine. There were metal birds
that sang automatically on the swinging branches of this tree built by Muslim inventors and engineers. The Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir also had a silver and golden tree in his palace in Baghdad in 917, with birds on it flapping their wings and singing. In the 9th century, the Banū Mūsā brothers invented a programmable automatic flute player and which they described in their Book of Ingenious Devices.
Automaton in the Swiss Museum CIMA.
An automaton writing a letter in Swiss Museum CIMA.
Al-Jazari described complex programmable humanoid automata amongst other machines he designed and constructed in the Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206.
His automaton was a boat with four automatic musicians that floated on a
lake to entertain guests at royal drinking parties. His mechanism had a programmable drum machine with pegs (cams) that bump into little levers that operate the percussion. The drummer could be made to play different rhythms and drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. According to Charles B. Fowler, the automata were a "robot band" which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection."
Al-Jazari constructed a hand washing automaton first employing the flush mechanism now used in modern toilets. It features a female automaton standing by a basin filled with water. When the user pulls the lever, the water drains and the automaton refills the basin. His "peacock fountain" was another more sophisticated hand washing device featuring humanoid automata as servants who offer soap and towels.
Mark E. Rosheim describes it as follows: "Pulling a plug on the
peacock's tail releases water out of the beak; as the dirty water from
the basin fills the hollow base a float rises and actuates a linkage
which makes a servant figure appear from behind a door under the
peacock and offer soap. When more water is used, a second float at a
higher level trips and causes the appearance of a second servant figure —
with a towel!"
Al-Jazari thus appears to have been the first inventor to display an
interest in creating human-like machines for practical purposes such as
manipulating the environment for human comfort.
In 1066, the Chinese inventor Su Song built a water clock in the form of a tower which featured mechanical figurines which chimed the hours.
Samarangana Sutradhara, a Sanskrit treatise by Bhoja
(11th century), includes a chapter about the construction of mechanical
contrivances (automata), including mechanical bees and birds, fountains
shaped like humans and animals, and male and female dolls that refilled
oil lamps, danced, played instruments, and re-enacted scenes from Hindu
mythology.
Villard de Honnecourt, in his 1230s sketchbook, depicted an early escapement mechanism in a drawing titled How to make an angel keep pointing his finger toward the Sun
with an angel that would perpetually turn to face the sun. He also drew
an automaton of a bird with jointed wings, which led to their design
implementation in clocks.
At the end of the thirteenth century, Robert II, Count of Artois
built a pleasure garden at his castle at Hesdin that incorporated
several automata as entertainment in the walled park. The work was
conducted by local workmen and overseen by the Italian knight Renaud
Coignet. It included monkey marionettes, a sundial supported by lions
and "wild men", mechanized birds, mechanized fountains and a
bellows-operated organ. The park was famed for its automata well into
the fifteenth century before it was destroyed by English soldiers in the
sixteenth.
The Chinese author Xiao Xun wrote that when the Ming Dynasty founder Hongwu (r. 1368–1398) was destroying the palaces of Khanbaliq belonging to the previous Yuan Dynasty, there were —among many other mechanical devices— automata found that were in the shape of tigers.
Renaissance and early modern
A cuckoo clock with a built in automaton of a cuckoo
that flaps its wings and opens its beak in time to the sounds of the
cuckoo call to mark the number of hours on the analogue dial.
The Renaissance
witnessed a considerable revival of interest in automata. Hero's
treatises were edited and translated into Latin and Italian. Hydraulic
and pneumatic automata, similar to those described by Hero, were created
for garden grottoes.
Giovanni Fontana, a Paduan engineer in 1420, developed Bellicorum instrumentorum liber which includes a puppet of a camelid driven by a clothed primate twice the height of a human being and an automaton of Mary Magdalene. He also created mechanical devils and rocket-propelled animal automata.
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Bell-ringing Death on Prague astronomical clock
While functional, early clocks were also often designed as novelties
and spectacles which integrated features of automata. Many big and
complex clocks with automated figures were built as public spectacles in
European town centres.
One of the earliest of these large clocks was the Strasbourg Clock,
built in the fourteenth century which takes up the entire side of a
cathedral wall. It contained an astronomical calendar, automata
depicting animals, saints and the life of Christ. The clock still
functions to this day but has undergone several restorations since its
initial construction. The Prague astronomical clock was built in 1410, animated figures were added from the 17th century onwards. Numerous clockwork automata were manufactured in the 16th century, principally by the goldsmiths of the Free Imperial Cities of central Europe. These wondrous devices found a home in the cabinet of curiosities or Wunderkammern of the princely courts of Europe.
In 1454, Duke Philip created an entertainment show named The extravagant Feast of the Pheasant,
which was intended to influence the Duke's peers to participate in a
crusade against the Ottomans but ended up being a grand display of
automata, giants, and dwarves.
A banquet in Camilla of Aragon's honor in Italy, 1475, featured a lifelike automated camel. The spectacle was a part of a larger parade which continued over days.
Leonardo da Vinci sketched a complex mechanical knight, which he may have built and exhibited at a celebration hosted by Ludovico Sforza at the court of Milan around 1495. The design of Leonardo's robot
was not rediscovered until the 1950s. A functional replica was later
built that could move its arms, twist its head, and sit up.
Da Vinci is frequently credited with constructing a mechanical lion, which he presented to King Francois I in Lyon in 1515. Although no record of the device's original designs remain, a recreation of this piece is housed at the Château du Clos Lucé.
The Smithsonian Institution
has in its collection a clockwork monk, about 15 in (380 mm) high,
possibly dating as early as 1560. The monk is driven by a key-wound
spring and walks the path of a square, striking his chest with his right
arm, while raising and lowering a small wooden cross and rosary in his
left hand, turning and nodding his head, rolling his eyes, and mouthing
silent obsequies. From time to time, he brings the cross to his lips and
kisses it. It is believed that the monk was manufactured by Juanelo Turriano, mechanician to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The first description of a modern cuckoo clock was by the Augsburg nobleman Philipp Hainhofer in 1629. The clock belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen. By 1650, the workings of mechanical cuckoos were understood and were widely disseminated in Athanasius Kircher's handbook on music, Musurgia Universalis.
In what is the first documented description of how a mechanical cuckoo
works, a mechanical organ with several automated figures is described.
In 18th-century Germany, clockmakers began making cuckoo clocks for sale. Clock shops selling cuckoo clocks became commonplace in the Black Forest region by the middle of the 18th century.
A Japanese automata theater in Osaka, drawn in 18th century. The Takeda family opened their automata theater in 1662.
Japan adopted clockwork automata in the early 17th century as "karakuri" puppets. In 1662, Takeda Omi completed his first butai karakuri
and then built several of these large puppets for theatrical
exhibitions. Karakuri puppets went through a golden age during the Edo period (1603–1867).
Elephant automaton at Waddesdon Manor
A new attitude towards automata is to be found in René Descartes
when he suggested that the bodies of animals are nothing more than
complex machines - the bones, muscles and organs could be replaced with
cogs, pistons and cams. Thus mechanism became the standard to which Nature and the organism was compared. France in the 17th century was the birthplace of those ingenious mechanical toys that were to become prototypes for the engines of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, in 1649, when Louis XIV
was still a child, an artisan named Camus designed for him a miniature
coach, and horses complete with footmen, page and a lady within the
coach; all these figures exhibited a perfect movement. According to P.
Labat, General de Gennes constructed, in 1688, in addition to machines
for gunnery and navigation, a peacock that walked and ate. Athanasius Kircher produced many automata to create Jesuit shows, including a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking tube.
All three of Vaucanson's Automata: The Flute Player, The Tambourine Player, and Digesting Duck
The world's first successfully-built biomechanical automaton is considered to be The Flute Player, which could play twelve songs, created by the French engineer Jacques de Vaucanson in 1737. He also constructed The Tambourine Player and the Digesting Duck,
a mechanical duck that - apart from quacking and flapping its wings -
gave the false illusion of eating and defecating, seeming to endorse
Cartesian ideas that animals are no more than machines of flesh.
In 1769, a chess-playing machine called the Turk, created by Wolfgang von Kempelen, made the rounds of the courts of Europe purporting to be an automaton. The Turk was operated from inside by a hidden human director, and was not a true automaton.
Maillardet's automaton is drawing a picture
Other 18th century automaton makers include the prolific Swiss Pierre Jaquet-Droz (see Jaquet-Droz automata) and his son Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz, and his contemporary Henri Maillardet.
Maillardet, a Swiss mechanic, created an automaton capable of drawing
four pictures and writing three poems. Maillardet's Automaton is now
part of the collections at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. Belgian-born John Joseph Merlin created the mechanism of the Silver Swan automaton, now at Bowes Museum. A musical elephant made by the French clockmaker Hubert Martinet in 1774 is one of the highlights of Waddesdon Manor. Tipu's Tiger is another late-18th century example of automata, made for Tipu Sultan, featuring a European soldier being mauled by a tiger.
According to philosopher Michel Foucault, Frederick the Great, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, was "obsessed" with automata. According to Manuel de Landa, "he put together his armies as a well-oiled clockwork mechanism whose components were robot-like warriors".
In 1801, Joseph Jacquard built his loom automaton that was controlled autonomously with punched cards.
Automata, particularly watches and clocks, were popular in China
during the 18th and 19th centuries, and items were produced for the
Chinese market. Strong interest by Chinese collectors in the 21st
century brought many interesting items to market where they have had
dramatic realizations.
Modern
A singing bird box made about 1890 by Bontems. Bird dressed with iridescent hummingbird feathers and case made of tortoiseshell.
The famous magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805–1871) was known for creating automata for his stage shows.
The flute-player by Innocenzo Manzetti (1840)
In 1840, Italian inventor Innocenzo Manzetti constructed a flute-playing
automaton, in the shape of a man, life-size, seated on a chair. Hidden
inside the chair were levers, connecting rods and compressed air
tubes, which made the automaton's lips and fingers move on the flute
according to a program recorded on a cylinder similar to those used in player pianos.
The automaton was powered by clockwork and could perform 12 different
arias. As part of the performance it would rise from the chair, bow its
head, and roll its eyes.
Tea-serving Japanese automaton, "karakuri ningyō", with mechanism (right), 19th century.
The period 1860 to 1910 is known as "The Golden Age of Automata".
During this period many small family based companies of Automata makers
thrived in Paris. From their workshops they exported thousands of
clockwork automata and mechanical singing birds around the world.
Although now rare and expensive, these French automata attract
collectors worldwide. The main French makers were Bontems, Lambert, Phalibois, Renou, Roullet & Decamps, Theroude and Vichy.
Contemporary automata continue this tradition with an emphasis on
art, rather than technological sophistication. Contemporary automata
are represented by the works of Cabaret Mechanical Theatre in the United Kingdom, Dug North and Chomick+Meder, Thomas Kuntz, Arthur Ganson, Joe Jones, and Nico Cox in the United States, Le Défenseur du Temps by French artist Jacques Monestier, and François Junod in Switzerland.
One of the most advanced automata proposed to date is NASA's Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE), a wind-powered automaton to be used for exploring Venus. Unlike other modern automata, AREE is an automaton instead of a robot
for practical reasons — Venus's harsh conditions, particularly its
surface temperature of 462 °C (864 °F), make operating electronics there
for any significant time impossible.
Since 1990, Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been building an artificial breed of large automated PVC structures called Strandbeest (Beach beast) that can walk on wind power or compressed air. Jansen claims that he intends them to automatically evolve and develop artificial intelligence, with herds roaming freely over the beach.
In education
The potential educational value of mechanical toys in teaching transversal skills has been recognised by the European Union education project Clockwork objects, enhanced learning: Automata Toys Construction (CLOHE).
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