The History of Robots: From the Very First to Today

In 1770, a wooden figure dressed as a Turkish sorcerer beat almost everyone at chess — and before every game, its owner opened the doors to show nothing but gears. How could a box of gears play chess better than people? Its secret fooled Europe for more than eighty years. This is the full history of robots, from the very first automata to the humanoids of 2026: al-Jazari's water-powered musicians (1206), Vaucanson's "digesting" duck and the clockwork Writer of Jaquet-Droz, the word "robot" from Karel Čapek's play, Eric and Elektro, Grey Walter's tortoises, Unimate — the first industrial robot — and Shakey, the robot that planned. Then Honda's P2 and ASIMO, Deep Blue, the Mars rover Sojourner, BigDog, the falls of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the backflip of Atlas, and the robots that box, play football and run half marathons today. 3D reconstructions show how they work: the Turk's hidden player, the pegged drum of al-Jazari's band, the cams of the Writer, the first robot arm, and how a humanoid keeps its balance. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 The chess machine that fooled Europe 0:39 Al-Jazari's mechanical musicians (1206) 1:34 Vaucanson's duck and the Writer 2:49 The Turk 4:06 The secret inside the Turk 5:31 The word "robot" 6:09 Eric and Elektro 6:58 Grey Walter's tortoises 7:38 Unimate, the first industrial robot 8:48 Shakey, the robot that planned 9:37 WABOT-1: first steps on two legs 10:12 Robots take over the factories 11:07 Honda's secret: P2 and ASIMO 12:04 Deep Blue, Mars and the Roomba 12:52 BigDog and the DARPA challenge 14:19 The backflip 15:20 Robots everywhere 15:50 The humanoid race 16:39 Robot sports in 2025-2026 18:06 The Turk's question today 18:53 What comes next Watch next: The History of Tesla. Would you let a humanoid robot into your home — and which robot in this story impressed you most? Tell us in the comments. Sources of photos and footage: Wikimedia Commons (public domain / CC0: engravings of 1783-1789, NASA, US Navy, US Army, US Marine Corps, DARPA), Pexels. 3D reconstructions, illustrations and AI reconstructions are labelled on screen; generic humanoids are not real products.