Unimate pouring coffee for a woman at Biltmore Hotel, 1967

Unimate was the first

industrial robot An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes. Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick a ...

, which worked on a

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...

at the 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 New York metropolitan area as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. It borders the Philadelphia metropolitan area and is part of the F ...

, in

1961 Events January * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 ...

.Mickle, Paul
"1961: A peep into the automated future"
''

The Trentonian ''The Trentonian'' is a daily newspaper serving Trenton, New Jersey, USA, and the surrounding Mercer County community. The paper in 2020 has a daily circulation of under 8,000 and a Sunday circulation under 7,000. As of August 2020, it was ranke ...

''. Accessed August 11, 2011. "Without any fanfare, the world's first working robot joined the assembly line at the General Motors plant in Ewing Township in the spring of 1961.... It was an automated die-casting mold that dropped red-hot door handles and other such car parts into pools of cooling liquid on a line that moved them along to workers for trimming and buffing. Its most distinct feature was a grip on a steel armature that eliminated the need for a man to touch car parts just made from molten steel." It was invented by

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. Devol's invention earned him the title "Grandfather of Robotics". The National Inventor ...

in the 1950s using his original patent filed in 1954 and granted in 1961 (). The patent begins:

The present invention relates to the automatic operation of machinery, particularly the handling apparatus, and to automatic control apparatus suited for such machinery.Rosen, Rebecca J
"Unimate: The Story of George Devol and the First Robotic Arm"
/ref>

Devol, together with

Joseph Engelberger Joseph Frederick Engelberger (July 26, 1925 – December 1, 2015) was an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the Uni ...

, his business associate, started the world's first robot manufacturing company,

Unimation Unimation was the world's first robotics company. It was founded in 1962 by Joseph F. Engelberger and George Devol and was located in Danbury, Connecticut. Devol had already applied for a patent an industrial robotic arm in 1954; was issued in ...

.1961: The First Robot
/ref> The machine undertook the job of transporting

die casting Die casting is a 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 dies which have been machined into shape and work similarly t ...

s from an assembly line and welding these parts on auto bodies, a dangerous task for workers, who might be poisoned by toxic fumes or lose a limb if they were not careful. The original Unimate consisted of a large computer-like box, joined to another box and was connected to an arm, with systematic tasks stored in a

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. For many early computers, drum memory formed the main working memory ...

. The Unimate also appeared on ''

The Tonight Show ''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...

'' hosted by

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...

on which it knocked a golf ball into a cup, poured a beer, waved the orchestra conductor's baton and grasped an accordion and waved it around. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

the Unimate was inducted into the

Robot Hall of Fame The Robot Hall of Fame is an American hall of fame that recognizes notable robots in various scientific fields and general society, as well as achievements in robotics technology. The organization was established in 2003 by the School of Comput ...

In popular culture

Fictional robots called ''Unimate'', designed by the character ''Alan von Neumann, Jr.'', appeared in comic books from

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

.''Booster Gold'' (vol. 2) #21 (August 2009)

References

{{reflist

External links

Electronic robot 'Unimate' works in a building in Connecticut, United States.

Newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, informa ...

footage Industrial robots Historical robots 1956 robots Robotics at Unimation