Robotics Past

Robotics Past
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Robotics is a relatively new technology, so here is a brief timeline of robotics:

1921: Karel Capek creates the term "robot" for his play called Rossuum's Universal Robots. The word robot comes from the czech word "robota" which means "compulsory labor."

1962: The Unimate is introduced. It is the first robotic hand created. It was used at a General Motors factory to do repetitive or dangerous tasks.

1970: The Stanford Cart is produced at Stanford University. It followed lines and could also be controlled by a radio link.

1974: Victor scheinman begins markets the Silver Arm. The silver arm was capable of assembling small parts using touch sensors.

1981: Takeo Kanade builds the Direct Drive Arm. First arm to have motors installed in joints. This made it much faster and more accurate.

1992: John Adler comes up with the concept of the CyberKnife. The CyberKnife would be used to find tumors and provide a dosage of chemotherapy to the tumor. It used X-ray to find the tumors.

1998: Tiger Electronics introduces Furby to the world. Furby used a variety of sensors to react to the environment and communicate over 800 phrases in English and in "Furbish".

2000: Honda debuts ASIMO on October 31.

2001: The CyberKinfe is cleared to remove tumors anywhere on the body.

2007: Toyota creates a violin-playing robot.
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