The year 1961 was notable and moreover, a turning point for one of the
most breath-taking fi elds of today’s information revolution, robotics. The
amazing pace in the fi eld of robotics and its manifold applications can be
traced back to 1961 and the remarkable sequence of events concerning politics,
military confrontations, scientifi c research, culture, society, and the
progress of technology. To put things in context, on 12 April 1961, Yuri
Gagarin became the fi rst man in space, soon followed by US Navy Commander
Alan Shepard on 5 May. In between, about 1300 Cuban exiles armed with
US weapons, and sponsored by the CIA, landed at the Bay of Pigs on 17
April, unsuccessfully attempting to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime. Four
months later, on 17 August, East Germany (DDR) started to erect the Berlin
Wall. A few weeks later, at 11:32 a.m. on 30 October, the USSR detonated
the Tsar Bomb, causing the largest man-made explosion in history, namely
a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Luckily,
in this hottest of years during the cold war, technology and science also
advanced for more peaceful purposes: Squibb produced the fi rst electric
toothbrush, movies were shown for the fi rst time on TWA fl ights, IBM presented
its Selectric typewriter, and Jack Lippes developed the contraceptive
intrauterine device. While some glorious movies, such as West Side Story ,
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and La Dolce Vita , were released, a number of unforgettable
songs like “Stand by Me,” or “Hit the Road Jack,” made the charts.