George Divo applied for the patent of the first robot in 1954 (196 1 authorization). The first robot company was Unimation, which was founded by Divo and by Joseph F. Engelberger in 1956, based on Divo's original patent. Unimation robots are also called programmable transfer machines, because at first their main purpose was to transfer objects from one point to another, less than ten feet apart. They use hydraulic actuators and compile joint coordinates, that is, the angle of each joint during storage and playback operations in the teaching phase. They are110,000 accurate to one inch. Unimation authorized its technology companies Kawasaki Heavy Industries and GKN to produce Unimates in Japan and Britain respectively. At one time, Unimation's only competitor was Mielack Dragon in Cincinnati, USA, and Ohio. This fundamentally changed the late 1970s, when several consortia in Japan began to produce similar industrial robots.
1969, Victor Scheinman invented the arm of Stanford University. The design of all-electric six-axis multi-joint robot allows a one-arm solution. This enables it to accurately track any path in space, which broadens the potential uses of robots and makes them more complicated, such as assembly and welding. Scheinman designed the second branch of MIT artificial intelligence laboratory, which is called "branch of MIT". After winning a scholarship from unimotion to develop his design, Scheinman sold it to those who designed unimotion to further develop their supporter, General Motors, and later it went public together with PUMA.
Industrial robots have developed rapidly in Europe. ABB robots and KUKA robots have brought the robot market. 1973, ABB Robotics Company (formerly ASEA) introduced IRB 6, the first commercial robot controlled by an all-electric microprocessor. The first batch of two IRB 6 robots were sold to magnuson to polish the bent pipe in Sweden, and were installed and produced in June of 1974 1. Also in June of 1973, KUKA robot established its first robot, named FAMULUS. The first joint robot of 1 had six electromechanical drive shafts.
In the field of robotics in the late 1970s, many American companies increased their interest in this field, including large companies, such as General Electric Company and General Motors Company (FANUC Robotics Company and FANUC Japan Co., Ltd. established a joint venture). American startups include Automatix and skilled technology. At the peak of the robot boom of 1.984, Unimation acquired Westinghouse Electric Company for 1.07 million dollars. Westinghouse sold Unimation to Stabile France SCA on 1988, and still engaged in joint robots for general industrial and clean room applications, and even bought Bosch's robotics department at the end of 2004.
Only a few non-Japanese companies operate in this market and finally survive, among which the main ones are Skillful Technology, Stauble, Unimation, Swedish-Swiss ABB Arcia Brown Boveri, German KUKA Robot and Italian Coma.