💻 Robots & Automation Trivia Questions & Answers
Robotics, drones and the rise of the machines that work for us. Below are 30 free robots & automation trivia questions with answers — part of Tech trivia on BUZZ. Want a real challenge that adapts to what you know? Play the Tech quiz — no signup needed to start.
30 Robots & Automation trivia questions
Q1. Which Japanese carmaker introduced its humanoid robot ASIMO to the world back in 2000?
Answer: Honda
💡 ASIMO followed 14 years of secretive prototypes, starting with a straight-legged walker Honda called E0 in 1986.
Q2. In 2017, Saudi Arabia made history by granting citizenship to which humanoid robot?
Answer: Sophia
💡 Sophia was built by Hong Kong's Hanson Robotics and first switched on back in 2016, a year before the citizenship news.
Q3. Which smoking, talking robot wowed crowds at the 1939 New York World's Fair?
Answer: Elektro
💡 Elektro stood seven feet tall and 'spoke' about 700 words using an onboard 78-rpm record player.
Q4. At Tesla's 2022 AI Day, Elon Musk unveiled a walking prototype of which humanoid robot?
Answer: Optimus
💡 Musk told the crowd the finished version was intended to eventually cost less than $20,000.
Q5. Which robotic arm went to work on a GM line in 1961, hailed as history's first industrial robot?
Answer: Unimate
💡 Unimate's first task was lifting hot metal die-castings and welding parts at a New Jersey GM plant.
Q6. Unveiled by SoftBank in Tokyo in 2014, which robot billed itself as first to read human emotions?
Answer: Pepper
💡 Pepper stood about 121 centimeters tall and used dual 5-megapixel cameras plus voice-tone analysis to gauge mood.
Q7. Sony's first robotic pet dog hit shelves in 1999 for about $2,500 — what was it called?
Answer: Aibo
💡 The first batch of 3,000 units reportedly sold out in Japan in about 20 minutes.
Q8. Which chess-playing 'automaton,' unveiled in 1770, actually concealed a hidden human operator?
Answer: The Mechanical Turk
💡 The Turk toured Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years before finally being exposed as a hoax.
Q9. Which Philadelphia chain opened America's first coin-operated 'automat' restaurant back in 1902?
Answer: Horn & Hardart
💡 The concept was inspired by Berlin's Quisisana automat chain, which founder Joseph Horn had seen on a European trip.
Q10. First developed in Japan in 1993, which seal-shaped robot was designed to comfort dementia patients?
Answer: PARO
💡 PARO responds to touch, light, and sound rather than just replaying a fixed script, and won a Guinness World Record.
Q11. In March 2018, which robot began flipping burgers on the grill at a CaliBurger in Pasadena?
Answer: Flippy
💡 It could grill about 150 burger patties an hour, though a human coworker still added cheese and toppings.
Q12. Built at Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, which robot first reasoned about its actions?
Answer: Shakey
💡 Its test rooms of blocks and ramps helped pioneer computer-vision and route-planning techniques still used today.
Q13. Completed at Waseda University in 1973, which was the world's first full-scale humanoid robot?
Answer: WABOT-1
💡 It could grip objects with human-like hands and gauge distances using a pair of camera 'eyes.'
Q14. Built by Cynthia Breazeal at MIT, which robot head pioneered social robotics in the 1990s?
Answer: Kismet
💡 It could shift its ears, eyebrows, eyelids, and lips to display emotions like surprise or interest.
Q15. Amazon paid $775 million in 2012 to acquire which warehouse-robot maker, founded a decade earlier?
Answer: Kiva Systems
💡 Once the robots were fully rolled out, Amazon's pick-to-ship cycle reportedly dropped from 75 minutes to about 15.
Q16. In October 2016, which drone firm launched the first national blood-delivery service in Rwanda?
Answer: Zipline
💡 A Zipline drone could reach a rural clinic in about 15 minutes after a health worker texted in an order.
Q17. Which French inventor wowed 1739 Paris with a mechanical duck that seemed to eat and digest grain?
Answer: Jacques de Vaucanson
💡 Crafting the duck's rubbery innards led him to create what's often called the world's first flexible rubber tubing.
Q18. In 1700s Edo Japan, which everyday task could karakuri puppets do using hidden clockwork gears?
Answer: Serving tea
💡 The doll's wheels ran on a coiled whale-baleen spring instead of metal, hidden inside an elegant kimono.
Q19. In December 2016, Amazon's first drone delivery to a customer dropped off what near Cambridge, UK?
Answer: Fire TV and popcorn
💡 The delivery took just 13 minutes from click to doorstep, flown by a drone cruising below 400 feet.
Q20. In December 2007, Toyota's humanoid 'Partner Robot' impressed crowds playing which instrument?
Answer: Violin
💡 The robot used 17 separate joints across its hands and arms to mimic delicate finger and bow movements.
Q21. In 2008, Denmark's Universal Robots sold which cobot as the first safe to use without a safety cage?
Answer: UR5
💡 Its Danish buyer, a plastics firm called Linatex, needed no robotics experience to program it themselves.
Q22. At DARPA's 2015 Robotics Challenge finals, viral clips showed humanoid robots mostly doing what?
Answer: Falling over
💡 South Korea's Team KAIST won overall with DRC-HUBO, a robot that could switch between walking and rolling on wheels.
Q23. George Devol blended two ordinary words to name his pioneering robotics company — what's the name?
Answer: Unimation
💡 Devol built the company with Joseph Engelberger, the robot-evangelist engineer remembered as the 'father of robotics.'
Q24. Originally built for bomb disposal, which iRobot machine assessed Japan's Fukushima plant in 2011?
Answer: PackBot
💡 The same robot line had explored caves in Afghanistan back in 2002, its first field deployment after a 1998 DARPA contract.
Q25. In 1973, KUKA built which machine, the first industrial robot with six electric-motor axes?
Answer: FAMULUS
💡 KUKA had previously relied on hydraulically powered robots from other makers before building this one in-house.
Q26. Founded in Estonia in 2014 by Skype co-founders, which company builds sidewalk delivery robots?
Answer: Starship
💡 Its founders had earlier built a robot for a NASA-linked moon-rover contest before pivoting to sidewalk delivery.
Q27. Which Segway inventor founded the youth robotics organization FIRST back in 1989?
Answer: Dean Kamen
💡 By 2020, the group's flagship robotics competition alone had grown to more than 3,600 teams and 91,000 students.
Q28. Inspired by a slow supermarket line in 1984, David Humble helped invent which retail machine?
Answer: Self-checkout
💡 The first self-checkout machines, built by CheckRobot, were installed at a Kroger store in Atlanta in 1986.
Q29. Which robot-combat show, born from a legal split with an earlier contest, premiered in 2000?
Answer: BattleBots
💡 Bill Nye the Science Guy served as the show's technical expert during its Comedy Central run.
Q30. Writing around the 1st century AD, which Greek engineer described a coin-slot holy-water device?
Answer: Hero of Alexandria
💡 His invention worked like a scale: a coin's weight tipped a lever to open a valve, then slid off to shut it.
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