Stanford Research Institute Develops Shakey, the First Intelligent Mobile Robot

Developed from approximately 1966 through 1972, Shakey the robot was the first general-purpose mobile robot that could "reason" about its own actions. While other robots at the time had to be instructed step by step in order to complete a larger task, Shakey could analyze commands and break them down into basic steps by itself. "Shakey could perceive its surroundings, create plans, recover from errors that occurred while executing a plan, and communicate with people using ordinary English." 

Shakey was developed by the Artificial Intelligence Center at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in a project funded by DARPA intended to create “intelligent automata” for “reconnaissance" applications. Because the project combined research in robotics, computer vision, and natural language processing, it was the first successful project that combined logical reasoning with physical action. 

"Shakey's overall software design has influenced the design of everything from driverless cars to undersea exploration robots. 

"Shakey's planning methodology has been used in applications ranging from planning beer production at breweries to planning the actions of characters in video games. 

"Variants of Shakey's route-finding software compute your driving directions here on earth, as well as driving directions for the Mars Curiosity rover. (Note that Curiosity is quite a “reconnaissance application”!) 

"Image analysis techniques that enabled Shakey to perceive its world are similarly used to alert today's drivers of cars that may be drifting out of lane" (C[computer]H[istory]M[useum] News, June 1, 2015). 

(This entry was written on the Oceania Riviera off the coast of Sicily in June 2015.)