Shakey the Robot
The first robot that could "think".
Developed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Shakey was the first mobile robot capable of reasoning about its own actions. Unlike industrial arms that blindly followed scripts, Shakey could perceive its environment and make plans.
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- If given a high-level command like "push the block off the platform," Shakey would look around with its camera, figure out it needed a ramp, find a ramp, push it to the platform, and then roll up to complete the task.
- To accomplish this, SRI engineers had to invent entirely new fields of computer science, including the A* pathfinding algorithm (which is still used in almost every video game today).
- It was notoriously slow; it would move slightly, stop, process data for several minutes in a massive off-board computer, and then jerkily move again (hence the name "Shakey").
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Shakey the Robot?
Developed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Shakey was the first mobile robot capable of reasoning about its own actions. Unlike industrial arms that blindly followed scripts, Shakey could perceive its environment and make plans.
When did Shakey the Robot happen?
Shakey the Robot: 1969 CE.
Why does Shakey the Robot matter?
The first robot that could "think".
Sources & Further Reading
Cite This Page
AskHistoryAI. “Shakey the Robot.” AskHistoryAI — Interactive Timeline of Everything. Updated 2026-09-11. https://askhistoryai.com/event/tech-shakey/
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