Remote-controlled systems
Remotely operated vehicles were demonstrated in the late 19th century in the form of several types of remotely controlled torpedoes. The early 1870s saw remotely controlled torpedoes by John Ericsson (pneumatic), John Louis Lay (electric wire guided), and Victor von Scheliha (electric wire guided).[39]
The Brennan torpedo, invented by Louis Brennan in 1877, was powered by two contra-rotating propellers that were spun by rapidly pulling out wires from drums wound inside the torpedo. Differential speed on the wires connected to the shore station allowed the torpedo to be guided to its target, making it "the world's first practical guided missile".[40] In 1897 the British inventor Ernest Wilson was granted a patent for a torpedo remotely controlled by "Hertzian" (radio) waves[41][42] and in 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a wireless-controlled torpedo that he hoped to sell to the US Navy.[43][44]
In 1903, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated a radio control system called "Telekino" at the Paris Academy of Sciences,[45] which he wanted to use to control an airship of his own design. He obtained some patents in other countries.[46] Unlike the previous mechanisms, which carried out actions of the 'on/off' type, Torres developed a system for controlling any mechanical or electrical device with different states of operation.[47] The transmitter was capable of sending a family of different codewords by means of a binary telegraph signal to the receiver, which was able to set up a different state of operation in the device being used, depending on the codeword. Specifically, it was able to do up to 19 different actions.[48][49]
Archibald Low, known as the "father of radio guidance systems" for his pioneering work on guided rockets and planes during the First World War. In 1917, he demonstrated a remote controlled aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps and in the same year built the first wire-guided rocket.
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