Early Teleoperators, Exoskeletons and Industrial Robots

This page shows a timeline of significant events in the development of Teleoperators, Exoskeletons and Industrial Robots with dates showing the creation or announcement of these machines.

Check out the updates page for recent posts.

There are many way to sub-categorize Teleoperators, from remote manipulators, Man-amplifiers and exoskeletons, prosthetics and orthotics, through to walking machines. These days, this overall category comes under the general heading of Haptics. The Man-amplifiers when combined with Walking machines are now commonly called Mechas (Mekas), following the naming popularized by Japanese Anime.

Early Exoskeletons and Man-Amplifiers

Gizmo Outboard-motor assisted walker
1961 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.
1970-2 – Powered Exoskeleton – Vukobratovic
 1987 – LIFESUIT – Exoskeleton – Monty Reed
1990 – SpringWalker
 1990 – Power-Assist Suit
 1998 – "Walking Machine" – Stelarc
21st Century
2000- Electric SpringWalker
 Kazerooni Human Extender
 2001 – DARPA $50 million 5-year exo program
2001- McKibben powered vests – Japanese
 2002 – HAL-3 – Cyberdyne
 2003 – Matrix 3 Exo Suits (Fictional)
 2004 – BLEEX – Kazerooni
 2004-5 Servo Mag Tetsujin competition
 2005 – HAL 5
 2008 – Iron Man exoskeleton (Fictional)
 2008 – XOS – Sarcos-Raytheron
 2008 – Power-assist suit (Japan)
 2009 – HULC – Locheed Martin
 2009 – Panasonic Power Loader
 2009 – District 9 Exoskeleton (Fictional)
 2010 – XOS 2 – Sarcos-Raytheon
 2010 – Avatar (Fictional)
 2010 Panasonic Power Jacket

Early Teleoperated Walking Machines

1990 – SpringWalker
 1986 – Power Loader – Aliens (Fictional)
 1998 – "Walking Machine" – Stelarc
21st Century
2000- Electric SpringWalker
 2003 – Matrix 3 Exo Suits (Fictional)
 2009 – District 9 Alien Exoskeleton (Fictional)
 2010 – Avatar (Fictional)

Early Remote Mobile Manipulators

Early Master-Slave Manipulator

   – Early Anthropomorphic Remote Control

 
   – No Force-Feedback
 
  – Force-Feedback
 
Early Lunar and Off-world Teleoperated Rovers
 
Early Teleoperators in Space
-Unmanned
-Manned
1961, April 12 – Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space.

1969, July 20 – First moon landing.

 
Early Industrial Robots
Pre-Robot Manipulators
First Re-Programmable Machines and Industrial Robots
 1801 – Jacquard Loom
 1873 – "Automat" Cam-operated Lathe by Christopher Spencer
 1941 – Isaac Asimov, aged 21 in May 1941, invents the word 'Robotics' in a robot story entitled "Liar!".
 1947 – Del Harder, a Ford executive, coins the word "Automation".
 1959 – Working Robot and Prototype Unimate by Devol & Engelberger
 1961 – 1st "Unimate", installed at GM
 1962 – "Unimation" formed by Devol and Engelberger
 1965-7 – Ole Molaug developed his Trallfa spray-paint robot. First production run in 1967. Now ABB
1967 – Unimation agreement with Kawasaki Triggered the Japanese robot industry
1971 – Cincinnati Milacron launched the first mini computer controlled robot T3
1974 – ASEA IRB-6 First Electric-powered Industrial Robot
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