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World Records WORLD RECORDS (MILLENNIUM EDITION] No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, chemical or mechanical, including photocopying, any information storage or retrieval system without a licence or other permission in writing from the copyright owners. Reviewers are welcome to quote brief passages should they wish . British Library cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 1-892051-00-1 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, the STAR AND WOOSH, and the GP LOGO are trademarks of Guinness World Records Ltd . Guinness World Records 2000 Abbreviations and Measurements Managing Editor Guinness World Records uses both metric and Nic Kynaston imperial meas ~ rements (imperial in brackets). The only exception to this rule is for some Design Lesley Horowitz & Dominic Sinesio at Office, NYC scientific data, where metric measurements only are universally accepted, and for some sports data. Editorial Manager Senior Editor Editors "GDR" (the German Democratic Republic) refers Rhonda Carrier Tim Footman Emma Dixon. Heather Goetz. Phil Hunt to the East German state which unified with West Germany in 1990. The abbreviation is Picture Editor Design and Production Cover Design Gregory King Robert Hackett Lesley Horowitz & Dominic Sinesio used for sporting records broken before 1990. at Office. NYC Special Content Consultant Assistant Designers Ron Callow at Design 23 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics split Brian Ford Elliot Jarrett. Yahya El-Droubie into a number of parts in 1991, the largest Technical Consultant (Cover) of these being Russia. The Commonwealth Esteve Font Canadell of Independent States replaced it, and the abbreviation "CIS" is used mainly for sporting records broken at the 1992 Olympic Games. Guinness Media Inc., USA Guinness World Records, London Accreditation CEO/Publisher Research Manager Guinness World Records Ltd . has a very Mark C. Young Geoff Trotter thorough accreditation system for records verification . However, while every effort is Research Manager Research Coordinator made to ensure accuracy, Guinness World John W. Hansen Shelley Flacks Records Ltd. cannot be held responsible for any errors contained in this work. Feedback from our readers on any points of accuracy Special Projects Coordinator Records Research is always welcomed. Kim Stram Duncan Flett. Della Howes. Lina Liu. Shazia Mirza, Manjushri Mitra, Stewart Newport. John Rattagan General Warning Researchers Attempting to break records or set new records Ellen Mosher, Andrew Myerberg can be dangerous. Appropriate advice should Keeper of the Records be taken first, and all record attempts are Clive Carpenter undertaken entirely at the participant's risk. Correspondence In no circumstances will Guinness World Helen Andrews. Carole Browne Records Ltd. have any liability for death Cindy Cominsky. Linda Sammis Correspondence Martin Downham. or injury suffered in any record attempts. Amanda Brooks. Ann Collins Guinness World Records Ltd. has complete discretion over whether or not to include any particular records in the book. Pre Production Manager Production Director Patricia Langton Chris Lingard Production Coordinator Printing and Binding Clair Savage Printer Industria Grafica. SA. Barcelona. Spain Color Origination Fulfillment Colour Systems. UK Mary Hill and Cathryn Harker Publishing Director Ian Castello·Cortes Managing Director Christopher Irwin This book is printed on wood free, chlorine free, and acid free paper --------------.----- BIGGEST ROBOT CHEAPEST ROBOT In 1993, US company Amblin Walkman, a 5-in.-tall robot, Entertainment, which is owned by was built froQ1 the remains of a Sony Steven Spielberg, created an Walkman for $1.75 at the 18-ftAall, 46-ft.-long, 9,ooo-lb. Los Alamos National Laboratory in robotic Tyrannosaurus rex for the New Mexico in 1996. In tests, film Jurassic Park. Made of latex, it struggled to get free when its legs foam rubbel, _an9 urethane, it was the were held without being programmed same size as the original dinosaur and to do so and without making the the biggest robot ever made for a same-movement twice. motion picture. MOST USED INDUSTRIAL ROBOT SMALLEST ROBOT Puma (Programmable Universal The light-sensitive Monsieur Machine for Assembly), designed microbot, developed by the Seiko by Vic Schienman in the 1970S Epson Corporation in Japan in 1992, and manufactured by Swiss measures less than '/50 in.' and weighs company Staubli Unimation, is '/" oz. Made from 97 separate watch the most commonly used robot parts, it can move at a speed of both on assembly lines and in '/5in. per sec. for about five minutes un iversity laboratories. when charged. FASTEST INDUSTRIAL ROBOT TOUGHEST ROBOT In July 1997, Japanese company A robot named Commander Fanuc developed the LR Mate 1001 ""'" BIGGEST VIRTUAL REALITY MARINE SIMULATION Manipulator has been developed by high-speed conveyance robot, the A girl shakes hands with a turtle-shaped robot at Expo 98, held in British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. to help with axis speed of which is estimated to be Lisbon, Portugal. The exhibition was the setting for the world's biggest the cleanup of contamination at 79% faster than previous models. The Windscale Pile 1 (now called Sellafield) robot can carry objects for up to virtual reality marine simulation ever. Visiting "divers" could explore in Cumbria, England - the scene of 1 mile 1,513 yd . and can move up and the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Antarctic Oceans by means of a VR one of the world's worst nuclear down 1 in. and back and forth 12 in. headset and an Onyx 2 supercomputer. accidents. The technology available at in a time of 0.58 seconds - 60% faster the time of the accident in 1957 was than previous models and an unable to cope with the extreme industry record . pushed . Developed by 150 engineers "intelligent" plastiC building blocks conditions in the plant's defective over 11 years at a total cost of that can be made into "thinking" reactor, so the 14 tons of uranium MOST HUMANOID ROBOT $80 million, it is intended for use in robots and brought to life through a fuel inside it were simply buried under In 1997, Japanese company Honda nursing and for tasks that are too home computer. Developed over more several yards of concrete. The robot is launched the 5-ft.-3·in.-tall dangerous or strenuous for humans. than 10 years by Professor Papert of largely resistant to the effects of P3 robot. The robot, which has Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology radiation, and its hydraulically three·dimensional sight, can turn MOST ADVANCED ROBOT TOY (MID in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the powered five-jointed arm can shift its head, step over obstacles, change In January 1998, the Danish toy bricks contain a microchip and sensors. weights of up to 280 lb. direction, and correct its balance if company Lego unveiled MindStorms, FASTEST·SELLING ROBOT PET Aibo Oapanese for "partner") is Sony's robot dog, which retails for $2,066. When Aibo made its first appearance MOST SOPHISTICATED on Sony's Web site on May 31, 1999, 3,000 were sold within 20 minutes. The SURGICAL APPLICATION l1·in.-tall Aibo can recognize its Dr. Robert Lazzara of Seattle, Washington, is surroundings with a built-in sensor. It can play independently or be seen practicing a coronary artery bypass on a programmed to do tricks. When model thorax using Computer Motion Inc.'s Zeus another 2,000 Aibos went on sale on robot. Zeus, which was released in February the Internet in the US on June 1, 1999, the initial rush to buy the pet cau sed 1998, allows su rgeons to perform heart Web servers to crash . bypasses through three incisions the width of pencils, using thin instruments that fit inside MOST ADVANCED ROBOTIC ARM In 1997, the US company Barret tubes in the patient's body. Computer Motion Technology developed a $250,000 Inc. is currently plann ing to produce a new robotic arm that has cables that act like version of the robot that allows surgeons to tendons and that can hold weights of 11 lb. in any position. The arm has a 1II1!1I-SDet~U telephone line. total of seven gearless joints, driven by brushless motors. It can throw a ball and could also be developed for LONGEST JOURNEY BY A ROBOT cleani ng, assisting people in and out On July 4, 1997, NASA's Sojourner robot of the bathtub, opening doors, and rover completed its 80-million- preparing meals. mile journey to Mars, landing on its surface within sight of the earlier MOST ADVANCED FORM OF Pathfinder lander. Weighing just ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 38 lb. 10 oz., the robot was controlled Deep Blue, IBM's RS/6000 SP remotely from Earth and roamed the chess·playing parallel supercomputer, surface of Mars conducting scientific beat world chess champion Garry experiments. Because it was so far Kaspa rov by 3)1, games to 2)1, in 1997. away from its Earth-based controller, Equipped with chess·specific maneuvering instructions took almost copro cessors, Deep Blue can examine 20 minutes to reach it. 200 million moves a second, which translates into 50 billion possible moves in three minutes (the time normally allowed for a single move in chess competitions). This astonishing amount of processing power allows Deep Blue to be, in Kasparov's words, "brilliantly subtle." MOST INTELLIGENT ROBOT Based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology BIGGEST ROBOTIC TELESCOPE (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Cog Project is The world's largest robotic telescope, situated at La Palma in the Canary an attempt to bring together the many different fields Islands, has been built as a joint of artificial intelligence and robotics. When completed, project between the Royal Observatory Cog (pictured below), the robot under construction, in Greenwich, London, and the will represent the ultimate in AI robotics - it will be astro physics department at Liverpool's John Moores University, both in an intelligent humanoid that can think, hear, feel, England.
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