Historical material: Grey Walter's 'turtle robots' Elmer and Elsie

Dr. Grey Walter. Electronische schildpadden met menselijke eigenschappen. (Electronic turtles with human characteristics) De Internationale Echo, (48), augustus 1950, pp. 208-211.

• HTML version (in Dutch)

• Original version (in Dutch)

• Front page of the issue of Echo in which this publication appeared

A list of concepts already introduced here by Grey Walter:

• Multiple autonomous agents
  • Input: light sensors, contact switch
  • Output: locomotion, head lights
• Artificial life: the robots search the location for charging batteries
• Emergent behavior
• Real non-linear dynamics: the characteristics of the thermionic valve were exploited to generate complex behavior.
• Neural network modeling (2 neurons)
• Turtle-helmet case with contact switch

Related links

• Another, more clear photograph of that year (1950) with Grey Walter soldering Elsie
• More on Grey Walter
• More on the turtles