ROBOTS - THEN AND NOW

Robots – then and now is a new exhibition booting up at Life Science Centre. This family-friendly exhibition, created by the Science Museum in London, celebrates the 500-year work-in-progress story of building automated machines.

Start your journey with the humble beginnings of 16th century mechanical automatons before marching forward through the rich history of robotics to the latest humanoids equipped with artificial intelligence. 

The exhibits – both old and new – will provoke much discussion and make you question your human emotional responses to inanimate machines. Are you comfortable with the idea of the human body as a conscious machine, with inner-workings similar to a complex mechanical clock? Are humanoids incredible feats of robotics that have a place in society, or just plain creepy?

Visitors can also explore robots in popular culture, with a display of vintage posters and a static collection of famous robots, including Eric, a modern recreation of the UK’s first robot, and a T800 Terminator used in the film Terminator Salvation from ScienceFictionArchives.com's collection.

Only a few of the exhibits are interactive – Pepper the Robot loves to fist bump with visitors! – but they all add to the rich history of robotics and will bring new ‘life’ to a wide variety of subjects, including human biology, psychology and ethics.