What early household robots were really like
Robots have often been misunderstood. Early machines traditionally characterized as clumsy servants were surprisingly responsive devices with high-pitched voices. They may (1) ________ have signalled to each other. This new image has (2) ________ from two studies of the control systems and outer frames of prototypes that (3) ________ laboratories between 1955 and 1975. The research clearly shows that early robot speakers might well have produced soft, musical and highly varied sounds — not the harsh electronic noises previously (4) ________ by most engineers. Priya Nair, Professor of Design and author of one of the studies, said: 'What is emerging is a picture of a useful and socially responsive machine whose most likely (5) ________ of communication would have been part light and part sound.' Nair's work (6) ________ with the first detailed study of a reconstructed service robot. Engineers brought together motors and panels from several sites to re-create the machine. The reconstructed machine clearly would have (7) ________ markedly from today's robots. It seems to have had a solid (8) ________ and no waist.