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.

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 ...

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 ...

Who is the father of robotics? The first is known for its development of industrial robots, Joseph Engelberger is widely recognized as the "father of robotics". His collaboration with George Davol led ...

Forty-seven years ago, two men who would launch the industrial-robotics revolution met over cocktails to discuss the ideas of the science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Joseph F. Engelberger and George ...

Years before personal computers, at the end of the 1950s, robots were already working in factories–or at least one was. The Unimate 1900 series was the first mass-produced robotic arm for use in ...