Joseph Frederick Engelberger (July 26, 1925 – December 1, 2015) was an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Often regarded as the "Father of Robotics". Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s. Later, he worked as entrepreneur and vocal advocate of robotic technology beyond the manufacturing plant in a variety of fields, including service industries, health care, and space exploration.
Biography
Early life and education
Joseph Frederick Engelberger was born on July 26, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Connecticut during the Great Depression, but later returned to New York City for his college education.
Engelberger received his B.S. in physics in 1946, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1949 from Columbia University. He worked as an engineer with Manning, Maxwell and Moore, where he met inventor George Devol at a Westport cocktail party in 1956, two years after Devol had designed and patented a rudimentary industrial robotic arm. However, Manning, Maxwell and Moore was sold and Engelberger's division was closed that year.
Unimation
Finding himself jobless but with a business partner and an idea, Engelberger co-founded Unimation with Devol, creating the world's first robotics company.
The introduction of robotics to the manufacturing process effectively transformed the automotive industry, with Chrysler and the Ford Motor Company soon following General Motors' lead and installing Unimates in their manufacturing facilities. Over the next two decades, the Japanese took the lead by investing heavily in robots to replace people performing certain tasks. In Japan, Engelberger was widely hailed as a key player in the postwar ascendancy of Japanese manufacturing quality and efficiency. Engelberger, who had served as Unimation's chief executive since its inception, left the company not long thereafter. In 1984, Engelberger founded Transitions Research Corporation. He introduced the HelpMate, a mobile robot hospital courier, as the flagship product of his new company. He hoped to kick-start a new industry for in-home robots, but he started in 1988 by selling his first HelpMate to Danbury Hospital, located in the same Connecticut city where his company was based. The medical robot was successful enough that the hospital ended up purchasing another, and within a decade, well over 100 hospitals worldwide operated HelpMates, whether purchased outright or rented from Engelberger's company, which he renamed HelpMate Robotics Inc.
After Engelberger was awarded the Japan Prize in 1997, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut delivered a floor speech in the U.S. Senate in praise and recognition of the inventor, calling HelpMate Robotics "an example of the way that a patient federal investment in science and technology can lead to new products that employ Americans and make for a better quality of life."
HelpMate was acquired by Cardinal Health in the late 1990s, a move Engelberger came to regret, complaining that the new owners moved away from his preferred model of renting out robots toward selling off used, depreciated models.
Later life
The 2000 World Automation Congress was dedicated to Engelberger, who delivered the keynote address.
Publications
Engelberger published Robotics in Practice in 1980. The book became a classic in the field and has been translated into six languages. Robotics in Practice was followed by Robotics in Service in 1989.
Engelberger received US Patent No. 3,504,868 in 1970 that gave the priority in the technology of the space magnetic propulsion to the United States of America.
Awards and honors
Engelberger was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1984. He was also honored among "The 1000 makers of the 20st Century" by The Sunday Times in 1992. the 1983 McKechnie Award from the University of Liverpool, the 1984 Egleston Medal from Columbia University, the 1997 Beckman Award for pioneering and original research in the field of automation, He also received the IEEE Robotics and Automation Award in 2004.