The P.U.M.A. Robot

HISTORY:
            In 1956 George Devol and Joseph F. Engelberger formed a company called ‘Unimation’.   In 1960 Condec bought Unimation and started building the first model of clyendrical robot called the ‘Versatran’

            In 1962 GM buys the first production line robot from Unimation/Condec.   Known as the ‘UNIMATE- Programmable Transfer Machine’   The arm was operated by hydraulics and followed a simple, teach and repeat operation.  The design quickly caught on and Unimation licensed the technology to several manufacturers.

            In 1970 Victor Scheinman invented an electric motor powered arm that was dubbed “The Stanford Arm”.  It had six joints and for the first time motions no longer were limited to linear transfers from one point to another.   This Kinematic design is still referred to as the STANDARD Arm.

            In 1974 Professor Scheinman forms VICARM Inc. to begin marketing his robotic arm designs. The arm design included a Minicomputer as the controller.

            Unimation awarded a fellowship to Scheinman  so he could continue to improve his designs and in 1977 Unimation bought Vicarm. 

            By 1978,  with the backing of Unimation and GM, Professor Scheinman developed a arm that was dubbed the PROGRAMABLE UNIVERSAL MACHINE for ASSEMBLY, or P.U.M.A. for short.

            General motors saw a bright future in robotics so in 1982 they formed a partner ship with a Japanese company called FANUC.

            After loosing a major partner, Westinghouse bout a 78% share of Unimation from Condec for a sum of $84 million. Westinghouse them merged Unimation into a robotics division they formed in 1981

            In 1982, a young company called Satubli, formed in 1979, began a collaboration effort with Condec\Unimation. Previously the company was involved in textiles and electronics connectors.

            Westinghouse/Unimation market share in robotics weakened again when Kawasaki terminated its Unimation License and began developing it’s own line of electric robots in 1986

            In 1989 Staubli Group purchased Unimation from Westinghouse and began producing the PUMA arms as part of the new Staubli Robotics division.