Help wanted in identifying robots
from Daniel C. Dennett's Home Page http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/incbios/dennettd/dennettd.htm [Mar08]
REWARD for information! I found it in an antique shop in
Paris. It was made in France in the 1950s, so I have
named it Tati, in honor of Jacques Tati (whose classic film
Mon Oncle captures the same era with the same ingenious
and humorous use of technology). I do not know who
made Tati, or why, and would be pleased to receive any
substantiated information about its provenance.
Although this photo has been associated with the Phony Pony the machine has eight legs and is nothing like the Phony Pony.
Even though it bears a superficial resemblance to the Iron-Mule test bed it is not of that lineage either. The mechanism here is worked by cranks rather than the cams of the Iron-Mule.