Introduction of Robotics The main era of robotic research and development was the mid-20th century, primarily within an industrial environment where repetitive movements and lifting of heavy objects made the use of machines over humans attractive. Robots were mainly employed for tasks that were too dirty, distant or dangerous for humans (Krebs and Volpe, 2013). Joseph F. Engelberger and George Devol developed the first industrially used robot, the Unimate, in 1961. This was a hydraulically driven, programmable, 2 tonne robotic arm, adopted for automated die-casting. Engelberger had an interest in service robotics particularly in medical applications, and in 1984 he formed HelpMate Robotics. The HelpMate was used to transport medical supplies around a hospital. In the late 1960s, Scheinman from Stanford University innovated the first successfully computer-controlled electrically powered robot arm – the Stanford arm. The articulated arm had 6 degrees of fr...