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From: kanna@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov (Kanna Rajan)
Subject: SHAKEY the robot @ SRI
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Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 16:01:25 GMT
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The following was posted locally; perhaps others in the Bay Area may
find this of interest.

-kanna
----------------------------------------------------------------------

              Bay Area Computer History Perspectives

                       "Shakey the Robot"


                    5:30 PM, Tuesday, Oct. 24
                           Auditorium
                     International Building
                        SRI International
                       333 Ravenswood Ave.
                           Menlo Park
                       (directions at end)

Prof. Bruce Donald, Cornell      Prof. Nils Nilsson, Stanford
Prof. Richard Fikes, Stanford    Dr. Bertram Raphael, Comp. Pt. Travel
Dr. Peter Hart, Ricoh Research   Dr. Charles Rosen, Consultant
                Prof. Stuart Russell, UC Berkeley


Shakey was the first mobile robot to reason about its actions,
developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center at SRI International
(then Stanford Research Institute) from 1966 through 1972. This program
will describe Shakey's beginnings and implementation, and then Shakey's
substantial legacy, including the influence on present-day artificial
intelligence and robotics. Video sequences will illustrate Shakey's
different capabilities.

Shakey had a TV camera, a triangulating range finder, and bump sensors,
and was connected to DEC PDP-10 and PDP-15 computers via radio and
video links. Shakey used programs for perception, world-modeling, and
acting. Low level action routines took care of simple moving, turning,
and route planning. Intermediate level actions strung the low level
ones together in ways that robustly accomplished more complex tasks.
The highest level programs could make and execute plans to achieve
goals given it by a user. The system also generalized and saved these
plans for possible future use.


Bay Area Computer History Perspectives is an occasional series of talks
emphasizing events in the history of the local computer industry,
organized by Peter Nurkse and Jeanie Treichel at Sun Microsystems.

Directions to SRI International from highway 101 in Menlo Park: take
Willow Rd. exit towards Menlo Park, and go west just over 1 mile to
Middlefield. Turn right on Middlefield, and follow Middlefield 3/4 mile
to Ravenswood, then left on Ravenswood to the main SRI entrance at 333
Ravenswood (half way down the block). Follow signs to the International
Building and visitor parking. Walk up the steps into the International
Building courtyard, and then enter through the Exhibit Hall doors on
the right side of the courtyard.


