# Stanford Research Institute Shakey (1969)

Shakey the Robot, developed at Stanford Research Institute from 1966 to 1972, was the first general-purpose mobile robot able to reason about its own actions, combining robotics, computer vision, and natural language processing. It pioneered the A* search algorithm and STRIPS planner, influencing modern AI and robotics.

Shakey the Robot was the first general-purpose mobile robot able to reason about its own actions. While other robots required instruction on each individual step of completing a larger task, Shakey could analyze commands and break them down into basic chunks by itself. Developed at the Artificial Intelligence Center of Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) from approximately 1966 through 1972, the project combined research in robotics, computer vision, and natural language processing, making it the first project to meld logical reasoning with physical action.

The robot's development produced several notable results, including the A* search algorithm, the Hough transform, and the visibility graph method. These contributions have had far-reaching impact on fields such as pathfinding, image analysis, and computational geometry. Shakey is now retired and displayed at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

## History

Shakey was developed from approximately 1966 through 1972, with Charles Rosen, Nils Nilsson, and Peter Hart serving as project managers. Other major contributors included Alfred Brain, Sven Wahlstrom, Bertram Raphael, Richard Duda, Richard Fikes, Thomas Garvey, Helen Chan Wolf, and Michael Wilber. The project was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), based on a SRI proposal submitted in April 1964 for research in "Intelligent Automata," later renamed "Intelligent Automata to Reconnaissance." The robot was originally designed to have two retractable arms.

The project inspired numerous other robotics efforts, most notably the Centibots. Shakey was showcased in the BBC's "Towards Tomorrow: Robot" documentary in 1967, and in 1969 SRI published a 24-minute video titled "SHAKEY: Experimentation in Robot Learning and Planning." The project received media attention, including an article in the New York Times on April 10, 1969. In 1970, Life magazine referred to Shakey as the "first electronic person," and in November 1970, National Geographic Magazine covered Shakey and the future of computers.

## Software

The robot's programming was primarily done in LISP. The Stanford Research Institute Problem Solver (STRIPS) planner was conceived as the main planning component for the software. As the first robot that was a logical, goal-based agent, Shakey experienced a limited world, which could contain a number of rooms connected by corridors, with doors and light switches available for interaction.

Shakey had a short list of available actions within its planner, including traveling from one location to another, turning light switches on and off, opening and closing doors, climbing up and down from rigid objects, and pushing movable objects. The STRIPS automated planner could devise a plan to enact all available actions, even though Shakey himself did not have the capability to execute all actions within the plan personally.

An example mission might involve an operator typing the command "push the block off the platform" at a computer console. Shakey would look around, identify a platform with a block on it, locate a ramp to reach the platform, push the ramp over, roll up the ramp, and push the block off the platform.

## Hardware

Physically, Shakey was particularly tall, with an antenna for a radio link, sonar range finders, a television camera, on-board processors, and collision detection sensors ("bump detectors"). The robot's tall stature and tendency to shake resulted in its name. As one team member recalled, "We worked for a month trying to find a good name for it, ranging from Greek names to whatnot, and then one of us said, 'Hey, it shakes like hell and moves around, let's just call it Shakey.'"

The hardware integrated multiple sensing and processing components, enabling real-time interaction with its environment. The combination of sonar, vision, and bump detection allowed Shakey to navigate and manipulate objects in its limited world.

## Research Results

The development of Shakey provided far-reaching impact on robotics, artificial intelligence, and computer science. Notable results include the A* search algorithm, widely used in pathfinding and graph traversal; the Hough transform, a feature extraction technique used in image analysis, computer vision, and digital image processing; and the visibility graph method for finding Euclidean shortest paths among obstacles in the plane.

These contributions have become foundational tools in modern AI and robotics. The A* algorithm, for instance, is used in applications ranging from [game AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/chess-computer) to [autonomous vehicles](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/waymo). The Hough transform remains a standard technique in computer vision, and the visibility graph method is applied in motion planning for robots and other automated systems.

## Media and Awards

In 1969, SRI published "SHAKEY: Experimentation in Robot Learning and Planning," a 24-minute video that received significant attention. The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's AI Video Competition awards are named "Shakeys" because of the significant impact of this video. Shakey was inducted into Carnegie Mellon University's Robot Hall of Fame in 2004, alongside such notables as ASIMO and C-3PO, and has been honored with an IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing.

Shakey's legacy extends to its influence on subsequent research in [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) and [machine learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning). The project demonstrated the feasibility of integrating logical reasoning with physical action, paving the way for later developments in [neural networks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network) and [deep learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deep-learning). Its contributions to planning algorithms and computer vision continue to inform modern AI systems, including those developed at institutions like [MIT CSAIL](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mit-csail) and [Stanford AI Lab](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/stanford-ai-lab).

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/einstein-miracle-year-1920
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-07T21:33:31.136821+00:00