Abstract
In this paper, the early decades of the history of industrial robots (from the 1950’s to the beginning of the 1990’s, approximately) will be described. The history of industrial robotics can be considered starting with Unimate, the first industrial robot designed and built by Devol and Engelberger. The subsequent evolutions of industrial robotics are described in the manuscript, taking into account both the technical and the economic point of view, until the beginning of the 1990’s, when new kinematic structures (parallel robots) appeared, allowing high-speed operations.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ceccarelli M (2001) A historical perspective of robotics toward the future. Fuji Int J Robot Mechatron 13(3):299–313
Ceccarelli M (2004) Fundamentals of mechanics of robotic manipulation. Kluwer/Springer, Dordrecht ISBN 1-4020-1810-X
Gasparetto A (2016) Robots in history: legends and prototypes from ancient times to the industrial revolution. In: López-Cajún C, Ceccarelli M (eds) Explorations in the history of machines and mechanisms, vol 32. History of mechanism and machine science. Springer, Cham, pp 39–49
Zamalloa I, Kojcev R, Hernandez A, Muguruza I, Usategui L, Bilbao A, Mayoral V (2017) Dissecting robotics — historical overview and future perspectives. Preprint available on arXiv.org (arXiv:1704.08617), April 2017
Wallén J (2008) The history of the industrial robot, Technical report from Automatic Control, Linköpings Universitet. http://www.control.isy.liu.se/publications
Lagerberg T, Jonson J (2016) Une bio du robot. Petite histoire de la robotique industrielle. ABB Review 3/16. http://new.abb.com/about/technology/abb-review
Sicliano B, Khatib O (eds) (2008) Springer handbook of robotics. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg
Mathia K (2010) Robotics for electronics manufacturing, principles and applications in cleanroom automation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Westerlund L (2000) The extended arm of man - a history of the industrial robot. Informationsförlaget, Stockholm
Malone B (2011) George Devol: a life devoted to invention, and robots. IEEE Spectrum Magazine, 26 September 2011. https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/george-devol-a-life-devoted-to-invention-and-robots
Scheinman V. Design of a computer controlled manipulator. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford University. http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0708069
Karlsson JM (1991) A decade of robotics; analysis of the diffusion of industrial robots in the 1980s by countries, application areas, industrial branches and types of robots. Mekanförbundets Förlag, Stockholm
https://anil89cs.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/cincinnati-milacron-t3-robot-arm
http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/performing-scara-robots.html
Asada H, Kanade T (1983) Design of direct-drive mechanical arms J Vib Acoust Stress Reliab 105(3):312–316
Clavel R (1991) Conception d’un robot parallèle rapide à 4 degrés de liberté. Ph.D. thesis, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Gasparetto, A., Scalera, L. (2019). From the Unimate to the Delta Robot: The Early Decades of Industrial Robotics. In: Zhang, B., Ceccarelli, M. (eds) Explorations in the History and Heritage of Machines and Mechanisms. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 37. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03538-9_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03538-9_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03537-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03538-9
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)