Autonomous Robot

An autonomous robot is one that acts without the need for human intervention. Elmer and Elsie, the first self-contained robot environments, were created by W. Grey Walter in the late 1940s. They were the first robots in history to be designed to "think" like biological brains and to be capable of exercising free will. Because of their shape and the way they moved, Elmer and Elsie were sometimes mistaken for tortoises. They were capable of phototaxis, which is the movement caused by light stimulation.