Shakey the Robot

Shakey was the first mobile robot to reason about its actions. Developed by SRI's Artificial Intelligence Center from 1966 through 1972 (we were called the Stanford Research Institute at that time), Shakey has had a substantial legacy and influence on present-day artificial intelligence and robotics.

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.

Shakey currently resides in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

In 2004, Shakey was selected for induction to the Robot Hall of Fame at Carnegie Mellon University. Read the SRI press release for more information.