Peviously, I wrote about the world's first mechanical calculating machine. Now here is a re-creation of the world's first robot::
In about 60 AD, a Greek engineer called Hero constructed a three-wheeled cart that could carry a group of automata to the front of a stage where they would perform for an audience. Power came from a falling weight that pulled on string wrapped round the cart's drive axle, and Sharkey reckons this string-based control mechanism is exactly equivalent to a modern programming language.
To prove it could work, [New Scientist's] tech writers took up the challenge and constructed their own version of Hero's cart.
Here's a video of their contraption:
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