History of Robotics

Any historical perspective on robotics should at the outset pay proper homage to science fiction. After all, the very words robot & robotics were coined by science fiction writers. Karel Capek gave us in his 1922 play “Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR)”, & Isaac Asimov coined the word robotics in the early 1940s to describe the art & science in which we roboticists are engaged today. There is an important distinction between these two science fiction writers. Capek decided that robots would ultimately become malevolent & take over the world, while Asimov from the outset built circuits into his robots to assure mankind that robots would always be benevolent.

Science fiction aside, a good place to start the history is in 1956. At that time George Devol had marshalled his thoughts regarding rote activities in the factory & his understanding of available technology that might be applied to the development of a robot. His patent application for a programmable manipulator was made in 1954, & it issued as a patent in 1961. This original patent was destined to be followed by a range of others that would flesh out the principles to be used in the first industrial robot. Also, in 1956, Devol & Joseph Engelberger met at a fortuitous cocktail party. Thus began an enduring relationship that saw the formation & growth of Unimation Inc. The first market study for robotics was also started in 1956 with field trips to some 15 automotive assembly plants & some 20 other diverse manufacturing operations.

In 1961 the first industrial robot went to work. Unimation’s founder & president proved just how clouded his crystal ball was by going from 1961 until 1975 before his company was able to show a profit. The publicity was great; it attracted many abortive competitive efforts. But those who provided that third ingredient, money, were sorely disappointed in the slow progress. Just consider: The first robot worked quite well! It is now in the Smithsonian Institute. Some of its brethren are still functioning today. Many of the earliest robots built have accumulated more than 100,000 hours of field operation, more than 50 man-years of working!

In the early 1960s Japanese visitors to Unimation increased in frequency, & by 1967 Engelberger was an invited speaker in Tokyo. In the United States it was difficult to gain the attention of industrial executives, but the Japanese filled the hall with 700 manufacturing & engineering executives who were keenly interested in the robot concept. They followed the formal presentation with three hours of enthusiastic Questioning. In 1968 Kawasaki Heavy Industries took a license under all of Unimation Inc.’s technology, & by 1971 the fever had spread & the world’s first robot association was formed not in the United States but in Japan! The Japan Industrial Robot Association (JIRA) started out with an opening membership of 46 companies & with representatives having personal clout in the industrial community.

Thereafter the rest of the industrial world slowly began to awaken. The Robot Institute

Of America was founded in 1975, well after the first International Symposium on Industrial Robotics (ISIR) was held in Chicago in 1970. That first ISIR attracted 125 attendees despite being held during a crippling snowstorm!