History Timeline of Robotics

1920

Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Capek introduces the word robot in the play Virility max - Rossum's Universal Robots.  The word comes from the Czech robota, which means tedious labor. 

1938

The first programmable paint-spraying mechanism is designed by Americans Willard Pollard and Harold Roselund for the DeVilbiss Company.

1946

Emergence of the computer: George Devol patents a general purpose playback device for controlling machines, using magnetic recording; J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly build the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania - the first electronic computer; At MIT, Whirlwind, the first digital general purpose computer, solves its first problem.

1948

Norbert Wiener, a professor at M.I.T., publishes Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal, a book which describes the concept of communications and control in electronic, mechanical, and biological systems.

1951

In France, Raymond Goertz designs the first teleoperated articulated arm for the Atomic Energy Commission.  The design is based entirely on mechanical coupling between the master and slave arms (using steel cables and pulleys).  Derivatives of this design are still seen in places where handling of small nuclear samples is required.  This is generally regarded as the major milestone in force feedback technology. 

1954

George Devol designs the first programmable robot and coins the term Universal Automation, planting the seed for the name of his future company - Unimation.

1960

Unimation is purchased by Condec Corporation and development of Unimate Robot Systems begins.

American Machine and Foundry, later known as AMF Corporation, markets the first cylindrical robot, called the Versatran, designed by Harry Johnson and Veljko Milenkovic.

1962

General Motors purchases the first industrial robot from Unimation and installs it on a production line. This manipulator is the first of many Unimates to be deployed.

1964

Artificial intelligence research laboratories are opened at M.I.T., Stanford Research Institute (SRI), Stanford University, and the University of Edinburgh.

1968

SRI builds Shakey, a mobile robot with vision capability, controlled by a computer the size of a room.

1970

Professor Victor Scheinman of Stanford University designs the Standard Arm.  Today, its kinematic configuration remains known as the Standard Arm.

1973

Cincinnati Milacron releases the T3, the first commercially available minicomputer-controlled industrial robot (designed by Richard Hohn).

1974

Professor Victor Scheinman, the developer of the Stanford Arm, forms Vicarm Inc. to market a version of the arm for industrial applications. The new arm is controlled by a minicomputer.

1976

Robot arms are used on Viking 1 and 2 space probes.Vicarm Inc. incorporates a microcomputer into the Vicarm design.

1977

ASEA, a European robot company, offers two sizes of electric powered industrial robots. Both robots use a microcomputer controller for programming and operation.

1978

Using technology from Vicarm, Unimation develops the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly).  The PUMA can still be found in many research labs today.