Roamer

With the conception of Turtles Seymour Papert introduced the idea of educational robots.  This is a history of Turtle robots.

The Valiant Turtle.

What is a Turtle?

This was Valiant’s first product and was probably the most successful Turtle robot.  Designed by Dave Catlin in 1983 the Valiant Turtle was included in the Best of British Design and Photography published in 1987 by the Design Council.  The last Valiant Turtle was shipped in 2011.

Remote Controlled and Accurate

You control a Turtle from a computer using the language Logo. Seymour Papert also invented Logo as a language for young children. They could program the robot to move using simple instructions. These  commands engaged students into thinking about complex mathematical ideas.

The Valiant Turtle moved more accurately than any other educational robot of this type. This made it very good at drawing the geometric shapes characteristic of Logo.

Papert called the Turtle an “Object to Think with”. To create these drawings students had to explore and manipulate geometric concepts.

A young Seymour Papert at MIT.

When Seymour Papert developed the idea of an educational robot running from Logo he called it a Turtle in recognition of the pioneering robotic effort of Grey Walter.

Grey Walter

Grey Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1910.  His German/British mother and American/British father decided to bring him up in England.  He worked in applied neurophysiological research. His work led him to build the world’s first autonomous robotic creatures.

Grey Walter built two Turtles between Easter 1948 and Christmas 1949. He called them Elmer and Elsie.

A reproduction of one of Grey Walter’s Robots

A clip taken from the “Future Shock”  Grey Walter talks about his inventions.

You can see more great videos of Grey Walter’s robots. on Valiant’s Research Site.

But Why Turtle?

It all started with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…

“Once,” said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, “I was a real Turtle.” …

“When we were little,” the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, “we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle—we used to call him Tortoise—”

“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?” Alice asked.

“We called him Tortoise because he taught us,” said the Mock Turtle angrily. “Really you are very dull!”

I was always curious how a tortoise became a turtle.  In British a tortoise is a land dweller and a turtle (and terrapin) is a thing of the sea.  Apparently in the USA both creatures are called turtles.

Along Came Papert

A rare picture of Papert without his characteristic beard.

Seymour invented the idea of Logo while working as a consultant to BBN Technologies on a project for the US Navy.  Bolt, Beranek and Newman was a prototype University Science Park.  The University was, MIT where Papert and Minsky jointly founded and ran the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.  The project run by Wally Feurzeig was a blue sky investigation into how to use “computers” to train naval personnel.  Logo was a spin off.  It was a computer language aimed at second grade students.  Programming a computer to solve a problem was a way to exercise thinking (particularly mathematical thinking) - the first computer based brain gym.

Wally Feurzeig in later years.

Cynthia Solomon working with 1st Graders

Cynthia Solomon has been involved in Logo since it conception until today.  She recalled how Papert spent a summer in Cyprus where he visited the daughter from his first marriage.  During that trip Logo was conceived.  When he returned a meeting was convened in Danny Bobrow’s home near BBN.  Danny, Wally and Cynthia were the first to hear about Logo. 

In reality this was the cumulation of a collective effort.  Papert’s experiences in his native South Africa followed by his work in Europe added to BBN mix that had been brewing for some time.  

IBM Mainframe computers of the early 60s - literally took up the whole room and even in those days cost over $1M.  High level programming languages were just coming into existence.

Wally joined BBN Technologies in 1962.  Wally’s initial efforts at BBN was to expand the capabilities of what he was later to call the monkey-see-monkey-do Computer Aided Instruction models.  This is very much the Skinner type teaching machines.  In 1965 he founded BBN’s Educational Technology Department under whose aegis Logo was to be created.  Wally picked up on developments in programming languages JOSS and its BBN Derivative TELCOMP and then stringcomp.  These were interactive languages.  They would tell people things and react to their responses.  

An example of JOSS program.  A bit overwhelming for non-programmers!

The teams experience with stringcomp led them to believe that it was possible to create a language for children that had what these days is called high ceiling low floor capabilities: that it is to get started doing things, but what you can do is very sophisticated.  This is the problem Papert solved with the idea of Logo.

Danny Bobrow

Danny programmed the first Logo, using the newly created Artificial Intelligence (AI) language LISP.  In fact Wally Feurzeig went as far as saying that Logo was in fact a dialect of LISP.  Originally Logo programming was really about students devising algorithms for solving mathematical problems - e.g. NIM Games.  A process evolved where each version would be taken into the school to work with children and then there would be a re-write.

The development of the PDP (a mini computer that was not a computer!”) was invented and one was installed at BBN.  PDP allowed multiple users connecting to the PDP at the same time. 

PDP Computers

This is a restored version of PDP 1 Made by Digital Equipment Corporation.  According to some sources in 1967 the US Government banned spending federal funds on computers - because they had not figured out what they were.  So DEC got around this by calling them Programmed Data Processors.

This is a restored version of PDP 1 Made by Digital Equipment Corporation.  

This is a restored version of PDP 1 Made by Digital Equipment Corporation.  According to some sources in 1967 the US Government banned spending federal funds on computers - because they had not figured out what they were.  So DEC got around this by calling them Programmed Data Processors.  Another source claims that DEC did not want to stir up IBM into taking too close an interest in what they were doing.

The PDP monitor was too limited for LOGO and certainly.  This lead Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky and Papert’s brother Alan to set up a company to create a monitor.  This was the General Turtle company.

A bigger problem with the PDP 1 was the cost of $120,000 (today that is $920,000).  Hence the PDP1 along with its monitor was housed at BBN and schools connected to it via  telephone line.

The PDP did not have a great monitor (right above) and that was with the computer.  Students typed in their program at a telephone terminal which transmitted their instruction to the PDP1 at BBN.  They saw the results of their efforts through a teleprinter. 

All of this was a necessary  prelude to the Turtle.

Here Comes the Turtle

I believe the lack of a monitor was one of the reasons Papert invented the idea of a Turtle.  The other was the exciting potential for exploration mathematical and geometric ideas offered by the inclusion of Turtle Graphics into Logo. 

Logo was essentially a computer language that allowed students to manipulate lists. 

A Logo program showing list manipulation taken from Exploring Language by Paul Goldenberg and Wallace Feurzeig.

The simple Logo program Outputs a gender depending on what Name was entered by the student.  Valid boys and girls names are held in lists.   Much to the chagrin of many Turtle Graphics became the dominant aspect of Logo to such an extent that Logo and Turtle Graphics were to become synonymous. 

The first Turtle Specification was written by Mike Paterson in August 1969.   Mike, who went onto to be Professor of Computing at Warwick University was visiting BBN from England and was tasked by Papert to write the functional specification.  The specification was entitled: LOGO Ambulatory Executor but was more affectionately called the Bug.

This is the first Turtle made in 1970.  It was made by Tom Callahan at the MIT Lab and met Paterson’s specification.

Later MIT made a more elegant Turtle.

Irving - By Paul Wexelblat

In the Paris Interview (See below) Wally refers to the work done by one of his  engineers.  That is Paul Wexelblat.   Paul constructed a Turtle called Irving, which was the first wireless Turtle.

Paul recalls:

I was in my office one afternoon when Wally and Seymour came in, they had just come from a meeting at MIT with Marvin.  Wally said that they had come up with an idea for a floor-walking robot that would be controlled by Logo. I don’t know who’s idea this was (not mine). Wally said that he had told Marvin that he had a guy who likely could come up with something…   I said I could come up with some kind of prototype in a few weeks, and add the commands to PDP-1 Logo (actually done by Dick Grant…

…Frank Frazier, also in the department suggested a model airplane remote control (6 Channel) so the wire got replaced with this, and I put a transmitted on the turtle to allow for sensor feedback.

Email from Paul Wexelblat 14th Sept 2015

 Irving was the first wireless Turtle.

I think it is clear that this took place after the tethered Turtles were created.  Wally’s Euro Logo Paper (see references) states that the  Turtle built to the Paterson specification came before the wireless version.  However there is a problem in his dates.  In his paper he claims this took place in 1971 and 1972.  Yet the Paterson document he gave me is dated 1969.

I think the “LOGO Ambulatory Executor” came first in 1970 and the second MIT Turtle and Irvine came second either later in 1970 or even 1971.  

It is curious why the wireless Irvine did not become the standard Turtle for the project.  However, in his email of the 14th Paul states:

I never got reliable sensors for Irving, and the pen was never implemented, but the 6th channel was reserved for that.

It seems progress was not made and possibly funding might have been an issue.

The Paris Interview

Celia Hoyles with Gary Stager interviews Logo pioneers Wally Feurzeig and Cynthia Solomon at the Paris Constructionism Conference in 2010.

Funding Logo Development

About 20 minutes into the Paris interview Wally and Cynthia address the funding of Logo development.

The initial development of Logo was funded within a BBN Project for the US Navy.  This was a blue sky review of how computers might be used to train naval personnel.  Wally Feurzeig recalled his interaction with the Navy’s Program Manager Glen Bryan.  Clearly work with school kids was not within the project remit.  However, Glen said, “We do have military brats!”  So they chose to work with the students at Hanscom School on the Hanscom Air Force base in
Lincoln Ma.

The final report to the Navy included a section on Logo.

Programming and Problem Solving: The Logo Programming Language was written by Seymour and Wally.  It saw the end of the Navy funding stream

I guess there is never an easy time to get funding.  In the Paris Interview Cynthia recalls Papert admonishing one hapless Education Department official.  The chap was a prototype bean-counter with a deep lack of vision which caused a frustrated Papert to leave the meeting with the parting shot, “If you were my student I would flunk you!”  

Wally’s attempts with the National Science Foundation (NSF) initially met with resistance.  The knee-jerk comment, “What have computers go to do with education?” reminds us that these were still machines the size of an office and remote from school buildings.  Another more serious objection was the BBN was not a University - NSF funds Universities.  Fortunately the NSF official, Milton Rose, had more vision than his Education Department counterpart and Wally was able to persuade him of the importance of the project.

Parting of the Ways

According to Cynthia Solomon it was difficult to tell who worked for BBN and who was from MIT.  At some point there was a schism and the development of Logo moved into MIT and the Artificial Intelligence Lab.  In the Paris interview both Cynthia and Wally brushed the question about the breakup aside.  Wally was more forthcoming in his paper “Towards a Culture of Creativity” he delivered  to the Eurologo Conference in Bratislava, 2007.  In this he cited the preference of NSF to give the funding to a University.  He also stated that whereas his vision was to use the technology to transform teaching in schools, Seymour was more anarchistic believing the change had to come outside the establishment.

MIT Professors Marvin Minsky (Left) and Seymour Papert now sporting a beard (Right).

At MIT Papert and AI pioneer Marvin Minsky co-directed MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab which took over the development of Logo.  At one point along with Papert’s brother Alan, they founded The General Turtle Inc.    It is not entirely clear what happened to this.  They did at least plan to make a machine a Logo Workstation, but this never happened. 

Whatever emotions were stirred up by the break the years have seen these forgotten.  Wally continued is association with Logo and its development and certainly told me that MIT was the best place for the project to develop and flourish.  In the Paris Interview both he and Cynthia recognise the huge contribution made by MIT Graduate students working with Minsky and Papert.  Between 1971 and 1981 they produced about 60 papers known as the Logo Memos.  Interestingly few of these involved the physical Turtle.

Logo Crosses the Atlantic

In 1972 a team from MIT crossed the Atlantic with a Turtle to attend a mathematics conference at Exeter University in England.    The visit certainly caught the mood of British Education.  In her book “An Elusive Science: The Troubling History of Education Research”, Ellen Lagemann famously characterised American education with the phrase, “Thorndike won and Dewey lost”.  The philosophical underpinnings of American education was in the grip of the behaviourists.  Not so in Britain.  In 1967 the influential Plowden Report had established constructivism and Piaget as the foundations of British education.

Educational psychologist Jean Piaget believed children constructed knowledge by interpreting their experiences of the world.

Before arriving at MIT Papert had spent 5 years working with Piaget.  The thinking of the two men’s thoughts were at important levels simpatico.  Piaget thought that student constructed their understandings of the world through a process of genetic epistemology.   That is they interpret the world by making sense of the experience of it.  This is a dynamic process where the understanding is continually modified by new experiences.  One of the central ideas behind Logo and Turtles was they helped create Microworlds - environments rich in educational potential.

Government Support

Whereas in the US key people were asking “What do computers have to do with education?”  The UK already had policies in institutions set up. The Labour Party had been elected to government making Harold Wilson Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Before the elections in 1963 Wilson gave a landmark speech in which he warned that to prosper the new Britain had to be forged in the White heat of scientific revolution.  A year later he had the opportunity implement polices to promote this ambition.   Education reform opened up universities for working class children (I am one beneficiary of that policy).  He also established the National Computing Centre in Manchester.

The National Computer Centre

The NCC was a quango - an autonomous not for profit funded by the government (a bit like NASA).  It was set up in June 1966 with the remit of encouraging the growth and use of computers.  This was not restricted persuading industry that the systems had benefits.  It included an education section.

Maurice Meredith was a Senior Education Consultant at NCC.

Maurice recalls the remit of the education team was to think about and plan what computing education should look like in schools.  They identified three areas of interest:

• Use of commercial software
• Data processing
  
• Control/Cybernetics

It was felt that these area were best approached using constructionist methods.  Logo and Turtles fitted perfectly with their vision.

Edinburgh University AI Department

In 1963 Donald Michie started what was to become the University of Edinburgh’s Artificial Intelligence Department.

A young Donald Michie.

During World War ii Michie had worked at the Bletchley Park coding facility helping to decode Hitler’s orders.  His other pastime was being a regular chess opponent of Alan Turing.   Under his directorship the group developed their own Logo and Turtle.

The Edinburgh Turtle like the MIT Turtles was tethered to the computer via an umbilical cord through which it received its instructions.

The University eventually licensed the commercial rights to their robot and it became known as the Jessop Turtle.  They licensed their Logo to Research Machines (aka RM Computers) who became a dominant supplier of PC Computers to British Schools.

Machine of the Year

The development of Personal Computer had a major impact on the adoption of Logo and Turtles.  The impact was so radical that in 1983 Time Magazine abandoned their normal Man of the Year cover and replaced it with Machine of the Year. The early 80s were to see radical up take of Logo and Turtles by schools.

In 1980 Basic Books had published Papert’s seminal Mindstorms book, which summarised the whole concept of Logo and Turtles.

The refined MIT Turtle pictured in Mindstorms.

In the USA three companies were providing commercial packages.  One of these was LCSI (Logo Computer Systems Inc) which was formed from the demise of the General Turtle Company.  The other two were Terrapin and Harvard Associates.  These two were later to merge.

In 1982 the BBC (British Public Television Service) created a 10 episode TV series called the Computer Programme.   The aim was to foster computer skills throughout the country, particularly in education.  A competitive bid to supply computers to provide schools with computers.  This was won by Acorn Computers who dominated the schools computer market for over a decade. 

A Valiant Turtle running from a BBC Micro and renovated by Francis Massen

The main Logo sold for the BBC was Logotron Logo.  Although there a number of simpler less expensive software packages like Dart appeared.  These were simply Turtle Graphics packages.

The BBC Buggy was a Turtle designed by Mike Bostock.

An Interview with Papert appeared in Practical Robotics Nov - Dec Issue 1984

Ex Primary school teacher turned journalist Anthony Ginn asked, “What differences do you notice nationally in the way robots and computers are used in education?"  Seymour acknowledged that there were a lot more Turtles in the UK than in other countries.  He attributed this to the consequences of the Piagetian based teaching practice and the efforts of British Turtle Manufacturers.

While these were part of the story, there were other reasons.  Some these become clear in the Paris Constructionism Interview.

Acknowledgements

The information in this blog is the result of interviews and discussions over several years with, Seymour Papert, Wally Feurzeig, Cynthia Solomon, Paul Wexelblat, Mike Paterson and Bill Glass of Terrapin Logo.  I also had email correspondence with Marvin Minsky and Danny Bobrow. 

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