da Vinci's Machines

May 13, 2013 12:00

Today, I visited the Museo di Leonardo da Vinci, an exhibition that is dedicated to the genius of Leonardo da Vinci. The museum showcases a collection of machine prototypes that da Vinci sketched in his notebooks. Leonardo designed most of these machines in the late fifteenth century, but interestingly, many of his notebooks were only rediscovered in the 1950s. A lot of Leonardo's ideas were not practical or even possible during his time period, but he had a crazy imagination.

Joe and I ended up doing some research on Leonardo's robot for a presentation we put together. His humanoid automaton wasn't entirely constructed in his notebooks; rather, he had bits and pieces of the design throughout – a series of sketches that roughly outlined a robot built with cables and pulleys. With a background in anatomy and kinaesthetics, the robot illustrates Leonardo’s belief that the body is a machine in structure: the ropes represent tendons, the pulleys represent joints and the tightening or loosening of the ropes simulate the straining or traction of limbs.

Mark Rosheim, an American Robotics Expert, was one of the main factors involved in piecing together the sketches. He even consulted Leonardo’s anatomy papers in Florence throughout this process. According to Rosheim, the robot "sat up, waved its arms, moved its head via a flexible neck, and opened and closed its anatomically correct jaw - possibly emitting sound while accompanied by automated musical instruments such as drums". The robot was most likely constructed for Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, for entertainment during courtly parties.

Today, Leonardo's robot design influenced NASA robots that were sent to Mars. Additionally, concepts are used in what has been coined the da Vinci Surgical System.