Unimate

A historical looking factory robot with a large silver base, and a brown joint supporting a beige rectangle labelled Unimate,  which ends in a simple gripper.
Unimate, the grandfather of industrial robots. Photo: SSPL/Getty Images

The Unimate was the first industrial robot ever built. It was a hydraulic manipulator arm that could perform repetitive tasks. It was used by car makers to automate metalworking and welding processes.

Creator

Unimation

Year
1961
Country
United States 🇺🇸
Categories
Features
Unimate presented in London. Video: British Movietone

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Did you know?

The first Unimate was installed at a General Motors plant in New Jersey in 1961.

A robot arm sitting on a rectangular base with control panels at the back.
This Unimate robot was first successful application of an industrial robot. The Henry Ford
Black and white photo of a large robotic arm on a massive base that is almost as tall as the 4 men standing behind it.
Is it bigger than you thought? The Henry Ford

History

In 1954, George Devol, an inventor and entrepreneur, filed a patent describing an autonomous machine that could store step-by-step digital commands to move parts in a factory (he called it a "programmed article transfer" device). Devol teamed up with another entrepreneur, Joseph Engelberger, and they built a prototype in 1958. They later started the first robotics company, Unimation, in Danbury, Conn. In 1961, they put the first Unimate into service at a General Motors plant in Ewing Township, N.J., where the robot extracted hot metal parts from a casting machine. The first Unimates sold for US $35,000 in the early 1970s (more than $200,000 in today's dollars). In 1978, after acquiring Vicarm, a company that had invented an innovative robot arm design, Unimation introduced the PUMA, or Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly, which went on to become a popular robot in industrial and research settings. Unimation eventually grew to have 800 employees and $90 million in revenue in the early 1980s, but sales declined as competition grew. Westinghouse acquired Unimation for $107 million in 1983 and transferred operations to Pittsburgh. Staubli, a French automation firm, later bought Unimation from Westinghouse.

Black and white photo of two men at a bar being served drinks by a robotic arm
Unimation cofounders Joseph Engelberger [left] and George Devol with their robot bartender. The Henry Ford
A black and white photo of a business man in front of a tabletop black industrial robot arm.
One of Unimate's successors was the PUMA manipulator. Photo: Getty Images

Specs

Overview

Equipped with hydraulic actuators and memory for hundreds of programmed steps. Position repeatability within 1 mm.

Status

Discontinued

Year

1961

Website
Height
142 cm (approximate)
Length
400 cm
Weight
1575 kg (early models)
Sensors

Custom rotary encoders

Actuators

Hydraulic actuators

Degrees of Freedom (DoF)
6 (Arm: 3 DoF; Wrist: 3 DoF)
Materials

Steel base and aluminum arm.

Compute

Magnetic drum memory (CMOS memory in later models).

Power

460-V power supply

Cost
$200,000 (approximate cost in today's dollars; $35,000 in 1972)