Inventor. He was a self-taught engineer best noted for inventing the revolutionary Unimate, the first programmable mechanical arm which is now used in industries world wide. In the 1950s, he applied for a patent for his concept named Universal Automation, and received a patent in 1961. Together with his friend engineer Joseph F. Engelberger, he formed the company Unimation Inc. in Danbury, Connecticut. There he developed the Unimate robotic machinery arm and General Motors put the first Unimate arm on an assembly line at the company's Trenton plant in late 1961. By the late 1960s, Chrysler and Ford followed using Unimate robotic machinery designed for welding, spray-painting, applying adhesives and other potentially hazardous jobs. The Japanese in addition to auto and other industry applications, also used his Unimation vision remotely controlled robots for hospital services. An early model of the Unimate is in the display collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and in 2002, Popular Mechanics Magazine listed the Unimate as one of the top 50 inventions of the last 50 years. His more then 40 patents includes the first automatic door photoelectric switches, rudimentary bar code system used to sort packages and the Speedy Weeny machine which uses microwave energy to cook hot dogs and dispense them. In May 2011, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the citation states, "George Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry". He died of natural causes at age 99.
Inventor. He was a self-taught engineer best noted for inventing the revolutionary Unimate, the first programmable mechanical arm which is now used in industries world wide. In the 1950s, he applied for a patent for his concept named Universal Automation, and received a patent in 1961. Together with his friend engineer Joseph F. Engelberger, he formed the company Unimation Inc. in Danbury, Connecticut. There he developed the Unimate robotic machinery arm and General Motors put the first Unimate arm on an assembly line at the company's Trenton plant in late 1961. By the late 1960s, Chrysler and Ford followed using Unimate robotic machinery designed for welding, spray-painting, applying adhesives and other potentially hazardous jobs. The Japanese in addition to auto and other industry applications, also used his Unimation vision remotely controlled robots for hospital services. An early model of the Unimate is in the display collection at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and in 2002, Popular Mechanics Magazine listed the Unimate as one of the top 50 inventions of the last 50 years. His more then 40 patents includes the first automatic door photoelectric switches, rudimentary bar code system used to sort packages and the Speedy Weeny machine which uses microwave energy to cook hot dogs and dispense them. In May 2011, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the citation states, "George Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry". He died of natural causes at age 99.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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