When I started to really get into robotics, mechanics, and automation back in the late 80s and early 90s, the fork in the road of Rodney Brooke's subsumption architecture, but still digital, approach versus Mark Tilden's BEAM analog approach really had me trying both.
CPGs (Central Pattern Generators) were often implemented using simple RC (resistor-capacitor) circuits within his "nervous net" (NvNet) architectures. The RC circuits generated rhythmic patterns that drove the robots' motor behaviors, allowing gaits to emerge naturally from the interaction of these analog components with the environment and the robot's mechanical structure. This approach enabled adaptive, robust locomotion without requiring complex digital control systems.
His 6-legged robots could lose a leg, and the system would take feedback from the stuck or missing leg, and learn to walk with 5 or 4 legs. Amazing stuff.
> One example of an analog computer is a mechanical clock. It calculates that passage of time by means of springs, gears and an escapement that models the real world. Many other examples include slide rules (yes, I'm that old), speedometers, spring or liquid thermometers, and more.
What we call "computer" today is really a "general-purpose computer."
Although, personally I think it's a stretch of semantics to call a mechanical clock a "computer."
Similar sentiments to some of my older camera lenses that call their depth of field scale a computer. Doubly so when they were later cost-reduced out and replaced with basic, static markings rather than a mechanism that expanded/contracted depending on your aperture
Readit News
CPGs (Central Pattern Generators) were often implemented using simple RC (resistor-capacitor) circuits within his "nervous net" (NvNet) architectures. The RC circuits generated rhythmic patterns that drove the robots' motor behaviors, allowing gaits to emerge naturally from the interaction of these analog components with the environment and the robot's mechanical structure. This approach enabled adaptive, robust locomotion without requiring complex digital control systems.
His 6-legged robots could lose a leg, and the system would take feedback from the stuck or missing leg, and learn to walk with 5 or 4 legs. Amazing stuff.
Deleted Comment
What we call "computer" today is really a "general-purpose computer."
Although, personally I think it's a stretch of semantics to call a mechanical clock a "computer."
Anyone know where I can read it?
[PDF] https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5494383/latest.pdf
The bigger deal is 200mW for 30Ghz. Which incidentally... Is probably never going to be nice for modern AI.
Digital logic is the system of gates and switches that we use as an abstraction layer over analog circuits. AND, OR, XOR, etc.
You certainly could build logic gates out of gears, and this would be a digital mechanical computer. But it’s not often done.
Here is an alt link: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/08/researchers-build-f...