Unimation was the world's first robotics company. It was founded in 1962 by Joseph F. Engelberger and

George Devol George Charles Devol Jr. (February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011) was an American inventor, best known for creating Unimate, the first industrial robot. The National Inventors Hall of Fame says, "Devol's patent for the first digitally operat ...

and was located in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...

. Devol had already applied for a patent an industrial robotic arm in 1954; was issued in 1961.''Modern Robotics: Building Versatile Machines'' (2006) by Harry Henderson , pp. 31-4''Robots: Explore the World of Robots and How They Work for Us'' (2015) by Rick Leider Devol collaborated with Engelberger, who served as president of the company, to engineer and produce an industrial robot under the brand name Unimate. They introduced their new robot in 1961 at a trade show in Chicago. The first Unimate prototypes were controlled by

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

s used as digital switches though later versions used

transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...

s. Further, parts available off-the-shelf in the late 1950s, such as digital encoders, were not adequate for the Unimate, so with Devol's guidance and a team of skilled engineers, Unimation designed and machined practically every part in the first Unimates. They also invented a variety of new technologies, including a unique rotating

drum memory Drum memory was a magnetic data storage device invented by Gustav Tauschek in 1932 in Austria. Drums were widely used in the 1950s and into the 1960s as computer memory. Many early computers, called drum computers or drum machines, used drum ...

system with data parity controls. In 1960, Devol personally sold the first Unimate robot, which was shipped in 1961 to

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

. GM first used the machine for

die casting Die casting is a casting (metalworking), metal casting process that is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. The mold cavity is created using two hardened tool steel die (manufacturing), dies which have been ...

handling and spot welding of car bodies. The first Unimate robot was installed at GM's Inland Fisher Guide Plant in

Ewing Township, New Jersey Ewing Township is a township in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township falls within the Trenton- Princeton metropolitan statistical area (which includes all of Mercer County), which is part of the New York combined sta ...

in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine and stack them. Soon companies such as

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

, Ford, and

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

saw the necessity for large Unimate purchases. The introduction of robotics to the manufacturing process effectively transformed the automotive industry, with

and the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

soon following General Motors' lead and installing Unimates in their manufacturing facilities. The rapid adoption of the technology also provided Unimation with a working business model: after selling the first Unimate at a $35,000 loss, as demand increased, the company was able to begin building the robotic arms for significantly less and thus began to turn a substantial profit. Unimation was purchased by Westinghouse (1983). Westinghouse later sold Unimation to the Swiss company Stäubli (1988) after the robotics industry shifted from the hydraulic models built by Unimation to electrically powered robots.

PUMA

The PUMA (''Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly'', or ''Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm'') was developed by Victor Scheinman at Unimation in 1978. Initially developed for

, the PUMA was based on the earlier Vicarm design Scheinman invented while at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

References

{{robotics-stub Robotics companies of the United States