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Father of Robotics, Joseph F. Engelberger, Dies At Age 90 (robohub.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Today the robotics industry is a multi-billion dollar business — but it all started with Joe Engelberger and Georges Devol, who formed Unimation in 1956, the world's first robotics company. Their first Unimate arm was installed at General Motors in 1961, transforming the automotive industry. While the automotive industry is still the largest piece of the robotics pie, the range of commercial uses for robotics is expanding into many of the service areas Engelberger also pioneered decades ago. Engelberger died peacefully in his home yesterday morning, at the age of 90.
Given amount of fathers of robotics, we don't know who mother of robotics was, but she certainly had a lot of fun.
While the idea of machines that could flexibly manipulate objects in 3-D had been around for a while in science fiction, Joe Engelberger actually made robot arms that worked. And he did it not just in a lab, but in production in the demanding environment of automotive factories. And this was back in 1961, when computers typically filled up a large air-conditioned room. He built a successful company, Unimation, around his inventions, put several generations of robots into production and mentored other pioneers in the field. He unquestionably deserves the title of "Father of Robotics."