# Ancient Web: Stanford Students Explained Robots Through R2-D2 and Shakey A surviving 1998–99 Stanford student project introduces robotics through science-fiction characters, ancient automata, Isaac Asimov, industrial manipulators and Shakey. 2026-10-13 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: Stanford Students Explained Robots Through R2-D2 and Shakey](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Ask someone in 1999 what a robot looks like and you might hear about R2-D2, Rosie from *The Jetsons*, or the little Sojourner rover on Mars. A preserved Stanford classroom project begins with exactly that kind of comparison. [Read Robotics: A Brief History](https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/robotics/history.html). The page sits inside a student-project directory marked 1998–99. Instead of assuming that every machine with moving parts is a robot, it opens by asking how the term developed. It contrasts the rebellious artificial workers in Karel Čapek's play *R.U.R.* with Isaac Asimov's more orderly fictional robots and their famous three laws. The students then assemble several definitions: a reprogrammable manipulator that moves materials, a device performing functions associated with humans, and the academic idea of linking perception to action. ## A history stretching from mythology to machines The next section surveys ancient automata, mechanical figures, and later inventions before reaching twentieth-century industrial robotics. George Devol's reprogrammable manipulator, Unimate, appears alongside the businessman and engineer Joseph Engelberger, whose work helped bring industrial robots into factories. A separate passage describes Shakey, the research robot built at the Stanford Research Institute. Unlike a repetitive factory arm, Shakey could move through an environment and respond to a limited representation of its surroundings. That contrast gives readers a useful distinction between automated machinery and systems that perceive their world. The students' historical overview is broad, and some ancient-technology anecdotes are simplified or difficult to verify from modern primary research. Its account should not substitute for a specialist history of robotics. The survival of the document is most interesting as a record of what young writers considered suitable examples and definitions in the late 1990s. Its linked images, horizontal rules, short topic headings, and modest page structure belong to a period when publishing a class research project on the open Web was itself an educational exercise. The result is a surprisingly legible snapshot: science fiction helps newcomers approach a technical field, while the authors try to distinguish imagination from actual machines. [Explore the original 1998–99 robotics history page](https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/robotics/history.html). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#stanford](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/stanford/), [#robotics](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/robotics/), [#studentwebsites](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/studentwebsites/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-stanford-students-explained-robots-through-r2d2-and-shakey/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-14T02:52:08+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:04:36.503417+00:00 Description: A late-1990s educational webpage captures how students explained the emerging robotics field with hand-built HTML and popular culture.