Unimate (The Industrial Robot)
The dawn of automated manufacturing.
Explore this event on the interactive timeline →The Unimate is widely recognized as the world's first industrial robot. Created by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger, the first unit was installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey.
Verified Facts
- It was a massive, 4,000-pound hydraulically actuated arm designed to perform repetitive, highly dangerous tasks like transporting die castings and welding auto bodies.
- Early versions of the Unimate were programmed by recording the joint coordinates on a magnetic drum.
- Its success proved that robots could reliably replace humans in hazardous manufacturing roles, kicking off the global industrial robotics revolution.