Robin John Popplestone, born December 9, 1938 in Bristol and died April 14, 2004 in Glasgow, was a pioneer in the fields of machine intelligence and robotics. He is known for developing the POP programming languages COWSEL, later renamed POP-1, POP-2 with Rod Burstall, and POP-11, along with the related multi-language integrated development environment Poplog, and for his work on the Freddy II robot with Pat Ambler at the University of Edinburgh Artificial Intelligence laboratory.
Facts
FAQs
What could the 1972 Edinburgh robot that Robin Popplestone worked on actually do?
It assembled simple models such as a toy boat and car from a few pieces using a camera and a robot hand.
In 1972 Robin Popplestone was a member of a small team at the University of Edinburgh that developed a hand-eye robotic device. It could assemble simple models, a toy boat and a car, from a few pieces. The system was trained to recognise the pieces visually, then the pieces were dumped on the table, the system separated them and the hand put them together to make the model. Popplestone wrote the program that controlled the hand motion. The School of Informatics obituary notes that the previous best machine, a computer at MIT, had managed to build a pile of bricks.
Did POP-2 become a widely used programming language?
It never gained international use but it was used elsewhere in the UK and helped early AI work at Edinburgh.
Not internationally. The School of Informatics obituary at the University of Edinburgh says that POP-2 never achieved international currency, but that it was used elsewhere in the UK and gave a head start to Artificial Intelligence work at Edinburgh.
Connections
In Field
Source Wikipedia: Robin Popplestone
Source Wikipedia: Robin Popplestone
Invented
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikidata: Robin Popplestone
- Wikidata Q7352723, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q7352723 P569 (date of birth)
2. Wikipedia: Robin Popplestone
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Robin John Popplestone (9 December 1938 in Bristol - 14 April 2004 in Glasgow) was a pioneer in the fields of machine intelligence and robotics.
- In Field: Robotics, Lead paragraph
- In Field: Programming Language Theory, Lead paragraph
View the Source POP-2 (Wikipedia)
Invented: POP-2, Lead sentenceQuote, Invented: POP-2, Lead sentence
POP-2 (also called POP2) is a programming language developed around 1970 from the earlier language POP-1 (developed by Robin Popplestone in 1968, originally named COWSEL) by Robin Popplestone and Rod Burstall at the University of Edinburgh.
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