eprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions to perform a variety of tasks.INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS George Devol, a self made engineer with his own business, and Joseph Engelberger, an engineer working in the aerospace industry, formed the world's first robot company. They met at a cocktail party in 1956 and during the evening exchanged some serious ideas: 50 percent of the people who work in factories are really putting and taking. Why are machines made to produce only specific items? How about approaching manufacturing the other way around, by designing machines that could put and take anything.Being intrigued by Devols ideas, Engelberger entered into a business arrangement with Devol. The two men searched for a standard design and after studying various production processes decided on a one armed machine. During research on the processes Engelberger was appalled by the working conditions in many of the factories. In plant he saw women tied to pressing machines by straps tied around their wrist to yank their hands back when the press closed. The workers were like automations that would continue to work until shaken from their hypnotic state. Engelberger predicted that the industrial robot would "help the factory operator in a way that can be compared to business machines as an aid to the office worker". They constructed their first robot in 1956 and named it the UNIMATE . The first industrial robot was built, but orders did not come flowing in. The first UNIMATE did not go into operation until 1961, when General Motors purchased one for their die casting plant.Even after General Motors started buying more of the robots, the manufacturing industry in general was not interested. Engelberger and Devol found them self up against two institutional barriers: The zone of indifference arising from the average mi...
