Putting Robots to Work

In factories, robots don’t have to look human—they just need to do the work.

As “multipurpose programmable object manipulators,” robots weld, paint, assemble parts, package finished goods, and test for correct operation.

Computer-controlled industrial robots appeared less than a decade after the first computers. George Devol founded Unimation in 1956, making mechanical arms based on hydraulic actuators that eventually were accurate to .0001”. Unimation licensed its technology to Kawasaki in Japan. American companies entered the field in the 1970s, but few survived. Today, most industrial robots are made in Japan.