George Devol (above right) died last week at his home in Connecticut. He invented the Unimate, the first programmable Industrial Robot. But his creative genius did not stop there. Check out these five ...

The president of Unimate and one of the first industrial robots appear on the Tonight Show, in which they demonstrate how to play golf, pour a beer, and get sassy with the band. Johnny Carson marvels ...

In Kevin Drum’s latest feature, he imagines a bleak future where robots begin taking all of our jobs. Though he predicts this will happen about three decades from now, the concept obviously isn’t new.

Do you know the name [George Devol]? Probably not. In 1961 he received a patent for “Programmed Article Transfer.” We’d call his invention the first robot arm, and its name was the Unimate. Unlike ...

Raymond Baxter enjoys a nice cuppa (milk, no sugar), courtesy of Unimate. BBC Archive: Originally broadcast 15 March 1967. 1967: Unimate Robot makes tea. Video, 00:01:591967: Unimate Robot makes tea ...

The first digital and programmable robot was called Unimate and was sold for a $35,000 loss to General Motors the same year its patent was approved. The Unimate was filed for patenting by George Devol ...