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TRANSFER ROBOT 200 – NEW BOND STREET

2607.10 | TRANSFER ROBOT 200 – NEW BOND STREET
(1:13:11:00 – 1:14:31:00) 1961 London.

LS. Mr Miduch, the mechanic, switches on three robots. CU. Mechanic looking on. CU. Robots working. CU. Switch panel. CU. One robot working. MS. Three robots working together, they pause and two robots wait for signal from first then continue. MS. The inventor Mr Shelly, talking to mechanic, Mr Miduch and to camera – no sound.

(Orig. Neg.) Date found in the old record – 14/08/1961.

Edwin F. Shelley.

Automatic Handling and Assembly Servosystem by E. F. Shelley et al. See full patent details here.

Patent number: 3007097
Filing date: Jul 2, 1959
Issue date: Oct 31, 1961

N/C-type programming for robots was pioneered in the 1950s by Edwin F. Shelley and his colleagues at US Industries. While research director at the Bulova Watch Company, Shelley sought ways to eliminate repetitive, monotonous manual tasks typical of light assembly work. In 1959, after moving to US Industries, Shelley filed for a patent on an "automatic handling and assembly servosystem," a device which evolved into US Industries' TransfeRobot. This fully programmable positioning system was designed for precision parts transfer and accurate placement operations for small parts, and had closed loop positioning control in three axes. Unlike the record-playback Unimate, the Transferobot was programmed much like a plugboard-type N/C machine. A kinematic study of the task to be performed was made to break it down into a series of discrete motions described as a sequence of positions. These preselected motions (and times) were listed in order on a process sheet and then transcribed onto a cardboard template used to pre-set the machine control. The template was placed over a panel of switches on the machine control and indicated which switches had to be thrown to achieve the desired sequence of motions. (The template also constituted a permanent record of the program which could be used to reconfigure the machine identically for future performance of the same operations.) The Transferobot was widely advertised as a reliable, low-cost, off-the-shelf, fully programmable automation device suitable for a broad range of industrial applications. US Industries President John Snyder explained that the TransfeRobot marked "a significant step in the process of liberating the working force of this country from mechanized drudgery" and Shelley estimated that it could displace a minimum of three million workers. The company scheduled their robot's debut for Labor Day, 1959. (Widely publicized also was a joint effort by US Industries and the International Association of Machinists to aid displaced workers; US Industries paid "dues" on each TransfeRobot sold to underwrite a cooperative American Foundation on Automation and Employment, which was devoted to worker retraining.) Several Transferobots were in fact sold to manufacturers of clocks, typewriters, automobiles, and candy but this pioneering venture into industrial robotics was prematurely interrupted when, in 1963, US Industries decided to discontinue its robot business, for financial reasons.

Footnotes: Edwin F. Shelley et al., "Automatic Handling and Assembly Servosystem," U.S. Patent No. 3,007,097 (filed September 1959, issued October 31,1961); US Industries brochures (Robodyne Division); "An Electrically-Programmed Small Parts Handling Device," Automatic Control, February 196o; John Snyder, quoted in Chicago Daily Tribune. September 8,1959; Edwin Shelley quoted in Edwin Darby, "Builds Robot to Man Production Lines," Chicago Sun Times, March 28, 196o, p. 44; telephone interview with Edwin Shelley, November 1983.

Source: Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation, David F. Noble, 2011.

Programmed Article Transfer by George C. Devol Jr. See full patent details here.

Patent number: 2988237
Filing date: Dec 10, 1954
Issue date: Jun 13, 1961

Joseph Engelberger on the left, George Devol Jr on the right – c1960

[Image credit: The Estate of George C. Devol]

In the patent, Devol wrote, "the present invention makes available for the first time a more or less general purpose machine that has universal application to a vast diversity of applications where cyclic digital control is desired."

Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.

At the suggestion of Devol's wife, Evelyn, the word "Unimate" was coined to define the product. 

In 1960, Devol personally sold the first Unimate robot, which was shipped in 1961 from Danbury, Connecticut to General Motors.

See the rest of the story in my later post on "UNIMATE" [TBC].

Patent number: 484870
Filing date: Jun 13, 1892
Issue date: Oct 25, 1892

Seward Babbitt's crane first mentioned around 1980 in terms of robotics history and timelines in textbooks, but in terms of enabling technology only, rather than being identified as a robot in itself.  That distinction is getting lost in modern references to this invention.  Its included in my timeline only to highlight that it is not a robot.  It shares characteristics of manipulator arms only.

The first mentioned of Babbitt's invention in terms of robotics that I can find is from The Journal of Epsilon Pi Tau – Volumes 6-10 – Page 98
"In 1892, Seward Babbitt of Pittsburgh patented a rotary crane with a motorized gripper for removing hot ingots from furnaces. "

Mary Locke getting what robots like to give.

Patent Information:

MECHANISM FOR REMOTE MANIPULATION OF INDUSTRIAL OBJECTS Anthony J. Kaye et al
See full patent details here. 
Patent number: 3173555
Filing date: Sep 7, 1962
Issue date: Mar 16, 1965

This invention relates generally to mechanism for positioning or otherwise manipulating objects, tools and the like in industrial operations, including programmed industrial manipulators. In a preferred form, it comprises mechanism affording duplication of the human arm's manipulative skill in placing physical objects in an infinite number of attitudes •and positions in a three dimensional space and operated and controlled by memory or program devices with which the desired movements of the mechanism may be recorded and then subsequently employed to cause the mechanism to repeat the record movements.
Mechanisms have been devised in the past which simulate certain movements of the human arm and hand, commonly known as remotely controlled handling equipment, programmed manipulators and the like, operating to duplicate the manipulative skill of the human arm in its ability to grasp, rotate, locate, and otherwise manipulate objects and to do this under the constant control of a remotely located person or suitably designed mechanical, electrical or similar memory or programming medium.
It is an object of this invention to apply a new principle to such art of manipulating objects in space, namely the use of one or more mechanical members acting as tension or compression vectors to guide or restrain the lateral movements of an object carrying member, thus enabling the latter member to position an object in space.
Another object is of embody this new principle in a flexible member or arm, guided and restrained by one or more adjustable such vector members, or "tendons," to precisely move one end of the flexible member and an object carried thereby from point to point in space limited only by the size and range of the equipment.
It is a further object of this invention to apply this new principle to a flexible arm which carries a gripping hand and for which a plurality of hand types are provided with the gripping hands being readily interchangeable.
Another object is the provision of such a mechanism operated by 'a single motor unit for achieving three dimensional positioning, as in the assembly of the multiple parts of a product.
Another object is to provide an object handling unit employing this new principle and including mechanisms by which the desired movements of the equipment can be retained and through which the equipment can subsequently automatically, accurately and continually repeat the desired movements.
Other objects and advantages, will become more apparent in the following specification and claims taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which describe and illustrate certain embodiments of the invention.

13 Nov 1933, New York, New York, USA — The law says "there ain't goin' to be no bar maids" the ubiquitous feminine cocktail shaker persists in appearing on the scene and here, essaying the role, is Miss Ruth Young, where she is demonstrating a helpful device for the cocktail lover and dispenser, the robot cocktail shaker. The girl and the machine were photographed by the Bartender's School at the Hotel Exposition in Grand Central Palace, New York. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

The Cocktail Robot is styled after the then well publicised Televox.