Unimate
{{Short description|World's first industrial robot, first produced in 1961}}
File:Unimate pouring coffee for a woman at Biltmore Hotel, 1967.jpg
Unimate was the first industrial robot,
{{cite book
| last = Nof
| first = Shimon Y
| authorlink = Shimon Y. Nof
| title = Handbook of Industrial Robotics
| edition = 2nd
| year = 1999
| publisher = John Wiley & Sons
| pages = 3–5
| isbn = 0-471-17783-0 }}
which worked on a General Motors assembly line at the Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961.{{Cite web |title=World-Information.Org |url=http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659325 |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=world-information.org}}{{cite book
| last=Menzel
| first=Peters
| authorlink=Peter Menzel
|author2=Faith D'Aluisio
| title=Robo sapiens: evolution of a new species
| url=https://archive.org/details/robosapiens00pete
| url-access=registration
| year=2000
| publisher=The MIT Press
| isbn=0-262-13382-2
| pages=[https://archive.org/details/robosapiens00pete/page/186 186–189] }}
Mickle, Paul. [http://www.capitalcentury.com/1961.html "1961: A peep into the automated future"], The Trentonian. 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." There were in fact a family of robots.
History
It was invented by George Devol in the 1950s using his original patent filed in 1954 and granted in 1961{{Cite web |title=Unimate // The First Industrial Robot |url=https://www.automate.org/robotics/engelberger/joseph-engelberger-unimate |access-date=29 January 2024}} ({{US Patent|2,988,237}}). The patent is titled "Programmed Article Transfer" (PAT) and begins:
The present invention relates to the automatic operation of machinery, particularly the handling apparatus, and to automatic control apparatus suited for such machinery.{{Cite web |last=Rosen |first=Rebecca J. |date=2011-08-16 |title=Unimate: The Story of George Devol and the First Robotic Arm |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/unimate-the-story-of-george-devol-and-the-first-robotic-arm/243716/ |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}
Devol, together with Joseph Engelberger, his business associate, started the world's first robot manufacturing company, Unimation.{{Cite web |title=1961: The first robot |url=http://www.capitalcentury.com/1961.html |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=www.capitalcentury.com}} Devol's background wasn't in academia, but in engineering and mechanics, and previously worked on optical sound recording for film and high-speed printing using magnetic sensing and recording. Engelberger's ultimate goal was to create mechanical workers to replace humans in factories.{{Cite journal |last1=Slocum |first1=Brian |last2=Yablonina |first2=Maria |date=December 2024 |title=Robot excess: machine histories and a hermeneutics of movement |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41693-024-00129-7 |journal=Construction Robotics |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |doi=10.1007/s41693-024-00129-7 |issn=2509-811X}}
The machine weighed 4000 pounds{{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Eschner |first2=Kat |title=How Robots Left the Lab and Started Helping Humans |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/story-first-industrial-robot-180967442/ |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}} and undertook the job of transporting die castings 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.
In 2003 the Unimate was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |title=The Robot Hall of Fame - Powered by Carnegie Mellon University |url=http://www.robothalloffame.org/inductees/03inductees/unimate.html |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=www.robothalloffame.org}}
Technology
= Unimate =
The 1961 Unimate installed at a General Motors factory differed significantly from George Devol's 1954 patented design. The Unimate was a hydraulically actuated programmable manipulator arm with 5 degrees of freedom. This contrasted with the simpler three-prismatic-link pick-and-place arm described in Devol's "Programmed Article Transfer" (PAT) patent.
= Devol's patent =
Devol's earlier methodology, involving the conversion of analog information into electrical signals, formed the basis for subsequent patents. The patent proposed a cost-effective, general-purpose article-handling machine for diverse industrial tasks, with programmable motions, including gripping mechanisms. It would have a wheeled chassis on rails, a base unit housing the movement-recording program drum, an elevator for vertical arm translation, a telescoping arm with a transfer head and gripper, and a three-dimensional position-sensing system using encoders and sensing heads.
The position-sensing system (proprioception) had two versions: one using notched metal strips and ferrous material detection, the other, a magnetized plate with polarity-based sensing and recording. Similarly, the program drum had two forms: a malleable metal sheet with mechanically deformed bulges, and a solid magnetizable drum. Both drum types used corresponding reading mechanisms.
The robot could be programmed by manually moving the gripper, recording the location on the program drum, then it could perform the same motion, an early form of imitation learning. This resulted in point-to-point movement, a standard feature in modern robotic arms. The magnetizable drum also allowed recording continuous movements along curved paths, synchronized with a timing reference for playback.
The fixed encoder array on the base unit served as a location index for recording, enabling deceleration near programmed positions and self-correction during operation.
In popular culture
The Unimate appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson 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.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKo6KMkuVAk Video clip of Unimate on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113174852/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKo6KMkuVAk|date=January 13, 2012}}
Fictional robots called Unimate, designed by the character Alan von Neumann, Jr., appeared in comic books from DC Comics.Booster Gold (vol. 2) #21 (August 2009)
References
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External links
- [http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675061807_Unimate_electronic-robot_electronic-memory_robot-works Electronic robot 'Unimate' works in a building in Connecticut, United States.] Newsreel footage