History of Robotics

History of Robotics

History of Robotics - The word robot was derived from the Czech word robota which means slave labor. It came into us in 1921 after a play written by Czech dramatist Karel Capek entitled 'Rossum's Universal Robots'.

Actually, the first industrial robot was not developed until the J 950s, when George Devol began patenting his concept of an iddustrial robot. In 1958, Devol entered into a. license agreement with Consolidated Control Corp., a subsidiary of Condec Corp. By 1960, a laboratory model of the first machine was in operation and in 1962 prototypes were ready.

In 1969, General Motors installed the first robot for spot welding automobiles. In 1986, approximately 16000 industrial robots were in use in the United States; by way of contrast, Japan had approximately 60,000 in use. By the early 1990s, it is estimated that the U.S.A. will have between 30,000 and 100,000 robots installed.

Current research efforts focus on creating a smart robot that can see, hear, touch, taste and consequently make decisions.