NEWS DESK WHAT’S NEW IN MANUFACTURING n `Father of Robotics’ Engelberger Dies at 90
oseph F. Engelberger, an engineer and entrepreneur known as the “Father of Robotics,” died Dec. 1 at his home in Newtown, CT. He was 90. Engelberger, an author and industry advocate, founded Unimation Inc. in 1956, the world’s fi rst industrial robotics manufacturer. Working closely with inventor George Devol, he developed the fi rst industrial robot in the US, called “Unimate,” which was installed in a die-casting operation in a General Motors plant in New Jersey in 1961. Since then, about 3 million industrial robots have been installed in factories worldwide. Engleberger told Manufacturing Engineering in 2006 that he had been inspired by author Isaac Asimov and his book I, Robot.
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“I had it in the back of my mind that that was a great thing to do,” Engle- berger told the magazine.
“I was a big fan [of Asimov] and years
later, when we had our robot company going, I invited him in to speak to our em- ployees. One of the things he said was, ‘I wrote these stories to pay for my college education. I didn’t think anybody would really do it.’”
“I was struck by the gracious, down-to- earth nature of this pioneer of the robotics industry,” said Pat- rick Waurzyniak, the Manufacturing Engineering senior editor who interviewed Engleberger for the 2006 story. “In spite of his widespread fame in robotics and automa-
tion, Mr. Engelberger could have been an everyman on the street, quite unassuming and humble after more than half a century spent building innovations in robotics,” Waurzyniak said of Engleberger. “Born the same year as my own father, I felt an immediate connection to the man who was still work- ing on his dream of developing a practical sensate robot that could help the elderly.”
“Joe made some of the most important contributions to technological advancement in the history of the world,” said Jeff Burnstein, President of the Robotic Industries
Association (RIA). “Because of Joe, robotics became a global industry.”
After selling Unimation to Westinghouse, Engelberger’s fo- cus shifted from industrial robotics to robotics in human ser- vices. Through HelpMate Robotics, Engelberger developed HelpMate, a robot hospital courier currently used in hospitals as well as spearheading development of robotic applications to assist in care for elderly and disabled individuals. Engelberger’s industrial applications fundamentally changed the automo- tive manufacturing sector, introducing robotics that enabled manufacturers to achieve greater effi ciency and precision with the use of robotic arms on assem- bly lines. The innovations Engelberger introduced were a major factor in the rise of the Japanese auto industry, where the use of robotics was enthusi- astically embraced in the post-war era. Engelberger was inducted into the US Manufacturers Hall of Fame in 2009. The RIA named its annual award the Joseph F. Engelberger Award in recognition of his outstand- ing contributions to the fi eld of robotics. Other honors Engelberger
received over the course of his career include induction into the National Academy of Engineering and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. Engelberger won major awards for his robotics efforts, including SME’s Albert M. Sargent Progress Award, the Nyselius Award from the American Die Casting Institution and the Leonardo da Vinci Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He was also a Fellow of SME. Born July 26, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, Engelberger
earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University. The 2006 Manufacturing Engineering story on Engelberg- er can be found at this link:
http://bit.ly/21v9u63. A tribute by the RIA can be found at this link:
http://bit.ly/1XHhdt1.
January 2016 |
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