Industrial Robots: Present and Future

“Robot” has become a household word today, but in 1923 when the play-write Karel Capek first saw his play R.U.R. translated into other languages, including English, the concept of a humanlike automaton which could perform work at its masters bidding had only been dealt with in mythology and folklore in terms of magic and sorcery. In the late 1930’s stories based on so-called “science-fiction” became increasingly popular and it was in 1939 that Isaac Asimov entered this burgeoning short-story field. In 1942, he postulated his “three laws of robotics” which are still probably more often quoted and recognized than anything written by a modern author. At this time, industrial and manufacturing technology were making such rapid strides that by 1956 George C. Devol’s patent for “Programmed Article Transfer” could be accepted as technically realizable and his ideas were adopted and made real by the group of engineers headed and inspired by Joe Engelberger. 1961 saw the first successful industrial robot application in the United States and before 1970 arrived it was almost commonplace to see multiple robot installations in the automotive industry.