An automaton is a machine that is made to act like a person or animal and do some of the things they can do. For hundreds of years, men who are good at mechanics have enjoyed making automatons. Usually these have been so interesting that they could be exhibited in museums or other places and people would pay to see them work. Some automatons have been built to play musical instruments. Some of the most famous automatons have been "chess players" that played games against human beings and usually beat them.
(The "automatic chess player" was always just big enough so that a live person could be hidden inside to control the moves made by the automaton.) Some automatons have phonograph devices inside so that they can talk. In some books and movies there are automatons that are supposed to be able to think, but this is not really possible. The automaton can do only what its machinery is built to do. The word robot is also used for machines that do things automatically.An automaton is a self-operating machine.Contemporary automata are a type of kinetic sculputure.A cellular automaton is a collection of "colored" cells on a grid of specified shape that evolves through a number of discrete time steps according to a set of rules based on the states of neighboring cells.Notable examples of automata include Archytas's dove, mentioned by Aulus Gellius.Villard de Honnecourt, in his 1230s sketchbook, show plans for animal automata and an angel that perpetually turns to face the sun.
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