George Devol
George Charles Devol, Jr | |
|---|---|
 George Devol in 1982 | |
| Born | February 20, 1912 |
| Occupation(s) | Inventor, entrepreneur |
George Charles Devol, Jr. (born February 20, 1912) is the inventor of the patent which led to the development of the first industrial robot, called Unimate. As an inventor he has over 40 patents and is president of Devol Research. Devol has resided in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Wilton, Connecticut operating a robot consulting business.[1]
Biography
Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1912, Devol was interested from boyhood in all things electrical and mechanical such as boats, airplanes, and engines.
He got some practical experience at Riordan Prep, where, in addition to studying traditional subjects, he helped construct some buildings and run the school's electric light plant. Although he wasn't very scholarly he read everything he could about mechanical devices, trying to discover what, besides building radios, could be done with vacuum tubes when applied as control devices.
United Cinephone
Choosing to forego higher education, in 1932 Devol went into business, forming United Cinephone Corp. to produce variable area recording directly onto film for the new sound motion pictures ("talkies"). However, he later learned that companies like RCA and Western Electric were working in the same area, and decided to discontinue the product.
At that time, Devol asked himself "what else can we do with all these photocells and vacuum tubes?"
United Cinephone manufactured Devol's invention, the "Phantom Doorman" photoelectric door, which were sold to Yale & Towne. This was the first automatic opening door, now ubiquitous in grocery stores and elsewhere. The Company manufactured many other products using photoelectric cells and vacuum tube control systems. Among these was a very early bar code system which was used for sorting packages at the Railway Express Company, years before others would separately come up with similar technology.
United Cinephone also manufactured Orthoplane lighting, another product Devol patented, for garment factories. United Cinephone also created revolutionary registration controls for printing presses and packaging machinery. The company also manufactured phonograph arms and amplifiers. In fact, Devol installed amplifiers at the Cotton Club and enjoyed watching Count Basie, Fred Waring and others, occasionally taking in the after-hours jam sessions.
In 1939 United Cinephone installed automated photoelectric counters at New York World's Fair to count customers entering the fairgrounds.
World War II
Around the time the World War II began, Devol sold his interest in United Cinephone and approached Sperry Gyroscope to see if they were interested in his ideas on radar technology. He was retained by Sperry as manager of the Special Projects Department that developed radar devices and microwave test equipment.
In 1939, Devol applied for a patent for proximity controls for use in laundry press machines, based on a radio frequency field. This control would automatically open and close laundry presses when workers approached the machines. Once the War began, Devol was advised by the patent office that his patent application would be placed on hold for the duration of the conflict.
Later in the war, he approached Auto Ordinance Company regarding products that company could produce aside from their primary product line, which were Thompson machine guns. Devol told them that the field of radar counter-measures was about to emerge as an urgently needed defense technology.
In 1943, he organized General Electronics Industries in Greenwich, CT as a subsidiary of the Auto Ordinance Corporation. General Electronics produced counter-radar devices until the end of the War. General Electronics was one of the largest producers of radar and radar counter-measure equipment for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force and other government agencies. The company's radar counter-measure systems were on allied planes on D-Day.
Over a difference of opinion regarding the future of certain projects, Devol resigned from Auto Ordinnce and joined RCA. After a short stint as eastern sales manager of electronics products, which he felt "wasn't his ball of wax", Devol left RCA to develop ideas which eventually led to the patent application for the first industrial robot. In 1946 he applied for a patent on a magnetic recording system for controlling machines and a digital playback device for machines. (2)
Other post-war work
Devol was part of the team that developed the first commercial use of microwave oven technology, the Speedy Weeny, which automatically cooked and dispensed hotdogs in places such as Grand Central Station.
In the early 1950s, Devol licensed his digital magnetic recording device to Remington Rand of Norwalk, CT and became manager of their magnetics department. There he worked with a team to develop his magnetic recording system for business data applications. He also worked on developing the first high-speed printing systems. While the magnetic recording system proved too slow for business data, Devol's invention was re-purposed as a machine control that would eventually become the "brains" of the Unimate robot.
The first industrial robot: Unimate
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In the 1940s, Devol wasn't thinking about robots. Instead, he was focusing on manipulators and his patent on magnetic recording devices. He felt the world was ready for new ideas as he saw the introduction of automation into factories during this time. With the development of the computer and the invention of the transistor in the late 1940s, most of the ingredients for an industrial robot were available.[2]
With this new technology in place, Devol worked on his invention. In 1954, he applied for patent No. 2,988,237 for Universal Automation or Unimation, which was issued in 1961. At the suggestion of Devol's wife, Evelyn, the word "Unimate" was coined to define the product much the same as George Eastman had coined Kodak.[3]
When he filed the patent for a programmable method for transferring articles, he 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."
After applying for this seminal patent, Devol searched for a company willing to give him financial backing to develop his programmable articles transfer system. He talked with many major corporations in the United States during his search. Then Devol met Joseph F. Engelberger at a cocktail party. Engelberger, at that time, was chief of engineering in the aircraft products division at Manning, Maxwell and Moore in Stratford, Connecticut. Engelberger was very interested, and Devol agreed to sell Manning, Maxwell and Moore a license to his patent and some future patents in the field.[2] Just as this decision was being made, however, Dresser Industries bought Manning, Maxwell and Moore and didn't see the need for its aircraft division and its industrial robot patent licenses.
This development prompted Engelberger to seek a backer to buy out the aircraft division and found one in Consolidated Diesel Electronic (Condec), which agreed to put up the financing for the continued development of the robot. This new Condec division was called Unimation Incorporated with Joseph Engelberger as its president.[4]
In 1961, Devol personally sold the first Unimate robot which was shipped from Danbury, Connecticut to General Motors.[5] GM first used the machine for die casting handling and spot welding.[6] The first Unimate robot was installed at GM's plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine and stack them. Soon companies such as Chrysler, Ford, and Fiat saw the necessity for large Unimate purchases.
Approximately five million dollars was spent to develop the first Unimate. In 1966, after many years of market surveys and field tests, full scale production began in Connecticut. Unimation's first robot was a materials handling robot and was soon followed by robots for welding and other applications.
In 1975, Unimation showed its first profit. In 1978, the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) robot was developed by Unimation from Vicarm (Victor Scheinman) and with support from General Motors.
Additional work
Devol later obtained patents on visual and tactile sensors for robots, coaxial connectors, non-refillable containers, and magnetostrictive manipulators or "microrobotics", a field he created.
- Lifetime member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
- Automation Hall of Fame
- PhD
- Henry Ford and Smithsonian Museum collections include Unimate Robots
References
- ^ He Brought Robot to LifeNew York Times March 21, 1982
- ^ a b Handbook of Design, Manufacturing and Automation by Richard C. Dorf and Andrew Kusiak (Wiley-IEEE) Page 260 ISBN 0471552186
- ^ vidyaonline.org - robot
- ^ Robotics Research Group - The first robot:"Ultimate"
- ^ "Unimate." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 08 Oct. 2008
- ^ Used-Robots.com - The History and Benefits of Industrial Robots