Shakey the robot facts for kids

Shakey the Robot, the first general purpose mobile AI robot.

Shakey the Robot was a very special machine built a long time ago. It was the first robot that could move around and think for itself! People called it a "general purpose mobile AI robot." This means it wasn't just built for one job. It could do many different things and learn as it went.

Shakey was developed by smart scientists at the Artificial Intelligence Center of Stanford Research Institute (which is now called SRI International). The main person leading this amazing project was Nils John Nilsson. They worked on Shakey from 1966 to 1972.

What Made Shakey So Special?

Shakey was a big step forward for robots because it combined many smart ideas. It was like giving a robot a brain, eyes, and ears all at once!

Thinking and Seeing Like a Robot

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Shakey used AI to make decisions. This was like giving the robot a "brain" to figure out what to do next.
• Computer Vision: Shakey had cameras that let it "see" the world around it. It could recognize objects and understand where they were in a room.
• Natural Language Processing: This allowed Shakey to understand simple commands that people typed to it. It could take instructions and try to follow them.

Connecting Brains and Brawn

One of the coolest things about Shakey was that it was the first robot to connect its "thinking" with its "doing." Before Shakey, robots might be able to think or move, but not both together in a smart way.

How Shakey Solved Problems

Shakey could plan a path to get from one place to another. It could also figure out how to move objects, like pushing a box. If it faced a problem, like a blocked path, it could think of a new way to reach its goal. This was a huge deal for robots back then!

Images for kids

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  Shakey in 1972, showing its different parts.

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  Peter Hart talked about Shakey's amazing first achievements in 2015.

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  Some of Shakey's creators at an award event in 2017. They are (from left): Richard O. Duda, Tom Garvey, IEEE President Elect Jim Jeffries, Peter E. Hart, Nils J. Nilsson, Richard Fikes, Helen Chan Wolff, Claude Fennema, Bertram Raphael, Mike Wilber.