The robots are coming! And when they get here, they'll take out the trash. I just love that. CNET has an overview of the different types of robots out there, and what they can do and where they want to go. Overall, it is a good primer on the state of the art.
The idea of automatons that can perform various tasks has been around since ancient Egypt. The word "robot," however, is of relatively recent vintage, coined by Czech playwright Karel Capek in the 1921 play "R.U.R."The first commercial robots appeared in the early 1960s as the world was consumed with the Atomic Age science of the Cold War. Unimation, founded by Engelberger, created robotic manufacturing arms, while Barrett Electronics came out with a driverless electric cart for grocery warehouses that was navigated by signal-emitting wires in the floor.
It wasn't an easy sell. "I had to go to 46 different companies, including GM and IBM, before I got some money from a railroad company," Engelberger recalled. Although GM passed the first time, it eventually became the first company to install a Unimation machine.