Tinker wasn’t just an ordinary gadget; it could wash cars, weed gardens, take babies for walks, and even accompany its owner on shopping trips. However, there was one major limitation—Tinker could only operate within a 200-meter radius of Weston’s garage. From there, Weston controlled the robot using a custom-built control panel, keeping it within arm’s reach, technologically speaking. What set Tinker apart from many early robots of its time was its advanced engineering. Equipped with 120 electronic motors, a zoom-enabled TV camera, and 29 channels for receiving signals, it was a marvel of innovation. The camera, cleverly mounted on the garage roof, allowed Weston to oversee his creation’s every move, making sure it stayed on task. Despite its potential, Tinker’s story took an unfortunate turn. In 1974, due to a lack of space in Weston’s home, the robot was passed on to Brian, a family friend. Brian owned Leeds Radio, a shop that specialized in selling army surplus radio equipment throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Sadly, like much of the equipment that passed through the shop, Tinker was likely stripped down and sold for spare parts. David Weston, who passed away in 1995 at the age of 71, was an imaginative inventor throughout his life. While he dreamed up many intriguing devices, often sketched out on the backs of cigar packets, Tinker was one of the few that saw the light of day—only to fade into obscurity. The development of modern robotics can be traced back to the early 1950s when George C. Devol, an inventor from Louisville, Kentucky, created the first reprogrammable robot. He designed and patented a device called “Unimate,” short for “Universal Automation.” Despite the innovation behind his creation, Devol struggled to find commercial success for nearly a decade, as industries were not yet ready to embrace the idea of automation. In the late 1960s, Joseph Engleberger, a businessman and engineer, saw the potential in Devol’s invention. Acquiring the patent, Engleberger refined Unimate into an industrial robot capable of performing repetitive tasks with precision. He founded a company called Unimation to produce and market these robots. Due to his groundbreaking contributions, Engleberger became widely regarded as “the Father of Robotics.” Meanwhile, academia was making strides in robot innovation as well. In 1958, at the Stanford Research Institute, Charles Rosen led a research team that developed a robot named “Shakey.” Unlike Unimate, which was designed for specific industrial applications, Shakey was far more versatile. Equipped with television “eyes,” Shakey could navigate through unfamiliar spaces, analyze his surroundings, and respond to certain stimuli. His name reflected his unsteady, rattling movements, which were a hallmark of his experimental design.
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