Founders' Toolbox
The hand tools, notebooks, and storage bins that travelled with an early team — the unglamorous half of robotics history.
The half of the story nobody photographs
A team's history is usually told through its robots. This case tells it through everything else: the socket set that got borrowed and never returned, the notebook with a shim measurement written in the margin, the bin labelled in three different handwritings.
Objects like these are the reason the museum exists. Robots get saved by accident. Tools and paperwork are thrown away on purpose.
Reading the labels
The bins were labelled by different students across several years, and the lettering changes as the team's roster turned over. One label is written upside down, which suggests the bin was already full when it was named.
We have photographed each label separately; the full set is available to researchers through the collection desk.