A Brief History of Robotics

       Science fiction has no doubt contributed to the development of robotics, by planting ideas in the minds of young people who might embark on careers in robotics and by creating awareness among the public about this technology. we should also identify certain technological developments over the years that have contributed to the substance of robotics. this table presents a chronological listing which summarizes the main early historical developments in the technology of robotics.

        Some of the early developments in the field of automata deserve mention although not all of them deal directly with robotics. in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were a number of ingenious mechanical devices that had some of the features of robots. JACQUES DE VAUCANSON built several human-sized musicians in the mid-1700s. essentially, these were mechanical robots designed for a specific purpose: 

entertainment. in 1805, HENRI MAILLARDET constructed a mechanical doll which was capable of drawing pictures. a series of cams were used as the "program" to guide the device in the process of writing and drawing. MAILLARDET'S writing doll is on display in the FRANKLIN institute in PHILADELPHIA, PENNNSYLVANIA. these mechanical creations of human form must be regarded as isolated inventions reflecting the genius of men who were way ahead of their time. there were other mechanical inventions during directed at the business of textile production. these included Hargreaves spinning  jenny(1770), Crompton's mule spinner(1779), Cartwright's power loom(1785), the jacquard loom (1801), and others.  

date	development
mid-1700's	j.de vaucanson built several human-sized mechanical dolls that played music.
1801	j. jacquard invented the jacquard loom, a programmable machine for weaving threads or yarn into cloth.
1805	H.Maillardet constructed a mechanical doll capable of drawing pictures.
1946	American inventor G.C. Devol developed a controller device that could record electrical signals magnetically and play them back to operate a mechanical machine U.S.pstent issued in 1952.
1951	Development work on teleoperators for handling radioactive materials. related U.S. patents issued to Goeertz (1954) and bergsland (1958)
1952	prototype numerical control machine demonstrated at the massachusetts institute of technology after several years of development. pan programming language and released in 1961,
1954	british inventor C.W.kenward applied for patenr tor robot design. British patent issued in 1957.
1954	G.C.devol develops designs for "programmed article transfer" U.S.patent issued tor design on 1961.
1959	first commercial robot introduced by planet corporation. it was controlled by limit switches and cams.
1960	first "unimate" robot introduced, based on devol's programmed  ankle transfer. it used numerical control principles for manipulator control and was a hydraulic drive robot.
1961	unimate robot installed at ford motor company for tending a die casting machine
1966	Trallfa, a Norwegian firm, built and installed a spray painting robot.
1968	A mobile robot named shakey developed at SRI (Stanford research institute). it was equipped with a variety of sensors, including a vision camera and touch sensors, and can move on the floor.
1971	The "Stanford arm" a small electrically powered robot arm, developed at Stanford university.
1973	first computer- type robot programming language developed at SRI got research called WAVE followed by the languages AL in 1974. the two  languages were subsequently developed into the commercial VAL. languages for unimation by Victor Scheinman And Bruce Simanon.
1974	ASEA introduced the all-electric drive IRb6 robot.
1974	Kawasaki, under unimation license, installed arc-welding operation for motorcycle frames.
1974	Cincinnati Milacron introduced the T3 robot with computer control.
1975	Olivetti "sigma" robot used in assembly operation- one of the very first assembly applications of robotics.
1976	Renite center compliance device for part insertion in assembly developed at Charles stark draper labs in united states.
1978	PUMA (programmable universal machine for assembly) robot introduced for assembly by unimation, based on designs from a general motors study.
1978	Cincinnati Milacron T3 robot adapted and programmed to perform drilling and routing operations on aircraft components, under Air force ICAM (Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing ) sponsorship.
1979	development of SCARA type robot at yamanashi university in Japan for assembly. several commercial SCARA robots introduced around 1981.
1980	Bin-picking robotic system demonstrated at university of Rhode island. using machine vision, the system was capable of picking parts in random orientations and positions out of a bin.
1981	a direct-drive robot developed at Carnegie-Mellon university. it used electric motors located at the manipulator joints without the usual mechanical transmission linkages used on most robots.
1982	IBM introduces the RS-1 robot for assembly, based on several years of in- house development. it is a box- frame robot, using an arm consisting of three orthogonal slides. the robot language AML, developed by IBM, also introduced to program the RS-1.
1983	report issued on research at Westinghouse corp. under national science foundation sponsorship on "adaptable-programmable assembly system" (APAS),a pilot project for a flexible automated assembly line using wools.
1984	several off-line programming systems demonstrated at the robots 8 show. typical operation of these systems allowed the robot program 10 he developed using interactive graphics on a personal computer and then downloaded to the robot.
1990's	robot development diversified into walking robots at MIT, Honda, etc., rehabilitation robots for health care , as well as robots for defence and space applications.
2000's	micro and nano robots using smart materials, unmanned Ariel vehicles and underwater robotics.