George Robot - Bletchley Park (5264940542)

George is a British

humanoid robot A humanoid robot is a robot resembling the human body in shape. The design may be for functional purposes, such as interacting with human tools and environments, for experimental purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for other pu ...

created by

Tony Sale Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...

in 1949. The robot was built using scrap metals from a crashed RAF

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by ...

bomber. George was reactivated in 2010 by Sale and is on display at

The National Museum of Computing The National Museum of Computing is a museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to collecting and restoring historic computer systems. The museum is based in rented premises at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and opened in 2007. ...

at Bletchley Park."Bletchley Park computer museum homes veteran robot George"
''BBC News'', 17 November 2010

History

In 1949

used the scrap metal from a grounded

bomber to build a simple

he named George. The construction cost for the robot was about £15."Robot George: early humanoid revived after 45 years"
''Daily Telegraph'', 22 November 2010 Actually, this robot could be considered George Mark IV, as Sale had already built a very basic robot in his parents' garage when he was 12 and named it George, plus two later versions. The last George robot, the only one extant, was built when Sale joined the Royal Air Force in 1949 as a radar instructor at the

RAF Debden Royal Air Force Debden or more simply RAF Debden is a former Royal Air Force station located southeast of Saffron Walden and approximately north of the village of Debden in North Essex, England History The airfield was opened in April 1937 ...

base in Essex. It could walk, turn the head, move its arms and sit down. It was powered by a pair of motorcycle batteries put inside his chest. The robot could also move his jaw to speak and be controlled by radio remote. The external cover of the body was made in aluminium and duralumin. George was put on display at the open days at the RAF Debden base and also appeared on television.

2010 reactivation

In November 2010 Tony Sale reactivated George after 45 years of total inactivity. The robot had been stored in Sale's garage. The original batteries were replaced with new

lithium Lithium (from el, λίθος, lithos, lit=stone) is a chemical element with the symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense soli ...

batteries and some minor fixing occurred. Sale described the process with the words: "I dug him out of the garage where he had been standing for 45 years, I had a fair bit of confidence he would work again and luckily I was right. I put some oil on the bearings and added a couple of new lithium batteries in his legs, switched him on and away he went. It was a lovely moment." The event gathered worldwide news-media attention, and George's reactivation was shown in the third episode of '' Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention''. After the reactivation, Tony Sale donated George to the National Museum of Computing, where it remains on display to the public.

2020 exhibition

On 15 March 2020, the robot was put up for display as part of the Robots Exhibition on Tekniska museet in Stockholm, Sweden.

References

External links

BBC article about George
{{DEFAULTSORT:George (Robot) 1949 robots Humanoid robots Robots of the United Kingdom