DEVELOPMENTS OF ROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY

DATE DEVELOPMENT
Mid- 1700s J. de Vaucanson built several human-sized mechanical dolls that
played music.
J. Jacquard invented the Jacquard loom, a programmable machine
1801 for weaving threads or yarn into cloth.
H. Maillardet constructed a mechanical doll capable of drawing
1805 pictures.
American inventor G. C. Devol developed a controller device that
1946 could record electrical signals magnetically and play them back to
operate a mechanical machine. U.S. patent issued in 1952.
Development work on teleoperators (remote control
1951 manipulators) for handling radioactive materials. Related U.S.
patents issued to Goertz (1954) and Bergsland (1958).
Prototype Numerical Control machine demonstrated at the
Massachusetts Institute of technology after several years of
1952 development. Part programming language called APT
(Automatically Programmed Tooling) subsequently developed
and released in 1961.
DATE DEVELOPMENT
1954 British inventor C.W. Kenward applied for patent for robot design.
British patent issued in 1957.
G.C. Devol develops designs for “programmed article transfer”.
1954 U.S. patent issued for design in 1961.
First commercial robot introduced by Planet Corporation. It was
1959 controlled by limit switches and cams.
First “Unimate” robot introduced, based on Devol’s “programmed
article transfer”. It used numerical control principles for
1960 manipulator control and was a hydraulic drive robot.
Unimate robot installed at Ford Motor Company for tending a die
1961 casting machine.
Trallfa, a Norwegian firm, built and installed a spray painting
robot.
1966
A mobile robot named “Shakey” developed at SRI (Stanford
1968 Research Institute). It was equipped with a variety of sensors,
including a vision camera and touch sensors, and it can move
about the floor.
The “Stanford Arm”, a small electrically powered robot arm,
1971
developed at Stanford University.
DATE DEVELOPMENT
First computer-type robot programming language developed at SRI
1973
for research called WAVE. Followed by the language AL in 1974. The
two languages were subsequently developed into the commercial
VAL language for Unimation by Victor Scheinman and Bruce
1974 Simano.
1974 ASEA introduced the all-electric driveIRb6 robot.
Kawasaki, under Unimation license, installed arc-welding operation
1974 for motorcycle frames.
1975 Cincinnati Milacron introduced the T3 robot with computer control.
Olivetti “Sigma” robot used in assembly operation—one of the very
first assembly applications of robotics.
1976
Remote Center Compliance (RCC) 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
Genral Motors study.
1978 Cincinnati Milacron introduced the T3 robot adapted and
programmed to perform drilling and routing operations on aircraft
components, under Air Force ICAM (Integrated Computer-Aided
DATE DEVELOPMENT
Development of SCARA type robot (Selective Compliance Arm for
1979 Robotic Assembly) at Yamanashi University in Japan for assembly .
Several commercial SCARA robots introduced around 1981.
Bin-picking robotic system demonstrated at University of Rhode
1980 Island. Using machine vision, the system was capable of picking parts
in random orientations and positions out of a bin.
A “Direct-drive robot” developed at Carnegie-Mellon University. It
used electric motors located at the manipulator joints without the
1981 usual mechanical transmission linkages used on most robots.
IBM introduces the RS-1 robot for assembly, based on several years of
in-house development. It is a box frame robot, using arm consisting
1982 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 robots.
1984 Several off-line programming system demonstrated at the Robots 8
show. Typical operation of these systems allowed the robot program
to be developed using interactive graphics on a personal computer
and then download to the robot.
Robotics Market and Future Prospectus
 Annual growth rate of Robotics in US is about 25%
 More people in industry are becoming aware of its potential for useful
applications
 The technology of robotics is improving in such a way so as to make robot more
user friendly, easier to interface to other hardware and software and more user
friendly.
 As the market grows and the volume of production of robots increase their will
be reduction in the unit price.
 The robotic technology will expand beyond large corporation to medium sized
and smaller companies.
 Robotics is the future technology and if the trend continues, future will be
mobile units with one or more arms, multiple sensor capabilities, the
computational and data processing power of today’s mainframe computers
 They will respond to human voice command and receive the general
instructions and translate using artificial intelligence to carry out the tasks.
 They will be able to see, hear, feel and precisely apply the force to an object and
move under their own power.
 Future robots will have many attributes of human beings
 ROBOT ANATOMY
 Robotics is an applied engineering science in combination with machine tool
technology and computer science.
 It includes machine design, control theory, micro electronics, , computer
programming, artificial intelligence, human factors and production theory.
 Robot anatomy is concerned with physical construction of the body, arm and
wrist of the machine.
 Most of the robots are mounted on the base which is fastened to floor.
 The body is attached to the base and the arm assembly is attached to the body
and at the end of the arm is the wrist.
 Wrist consists of number of components that allows it to orient in different
positions.
 Relative movement between various components of the body, arm and wrist are
provided by series of joints.
 These joint movements usually will be rotating or sliding motions.
 Attached to the wrist is hand which is technically named as End Effectors.
 The arm and body joints of the manipulator are used to position the end
effector and the wrist joints of the manipulator are used to orient the end
effector
 ROBOT CONFIGURATION
 Industrial Robots are available in wide variety of sizes, shapes and
physical configurations.
 Majority of today’s commercially available robots possess the following
four basic configurations.
 Cartesian configuration
 Cylindrical configuration
 Polar configuration
 Jointed arm configuration
 CARTESIAN CONFIGURATION
 It uses three perpendicular slides to construct x, y and z axes.
(linear movement)
 The work volume of the robot is a rectangular envelope (Cuboid)
 CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
 It consists of a vertical column and a slide which can move up and down along
the column. (Linear)
 The robot arm is attached to the slide, which can move radially with respect to
column. (Rotary)
 By rotating the column, the robot is capable of achieving a work volume that
approximates cylinder.
 POLAR CONFIGURATION
 It uses telescopic arm which can be raised or lowered about
horizontal pivot. (Linear)
 The pivot is mounted on a rotating base. (Rotary)
 The movement of various joints provide the robot with the
capability to move its arm within a spherical space (quasi
spherical). Hence it is also called as Spherical coordinate robot.
 JOINTED ARM CONFIGURATION
 Its configuration is similar to human arm.
 It consists of two straight components corresponding to human fore and upper
arm, mounted on a vertical pedestal.
 The components are connected by rotary joints corresponding to shoulder and
elbow. (three rotary)
 A wrist is attached to the end of the forearm, providing several additional
joints.
 The work volume is quasi spherical.
WORK VOLUME