Abstract
The 1997 Beckman Instruments Award Lecture from the Association for Laboratory Automation will be presented to
Joseph F. Engelberger is the Chairman of the Board of HelpMate Inc. Engelberger is widely considered the father of modern industrial robotics. He has authored a book entitled, “Robotics in Practice,” in 1980 which is still in print and has been translated into six languages. His latest book, “Robots in Service,” has been sold in the USA and Great Britain since 1989. In 1961 Engelberger was the first president and founder of Unimation, the first industrial robotics company in the world. In 1983, Unimation was sold to Westinghouse.
Not to rest on his laurels, Engelberger then founded Transitions Research Corporation (TRC) in 1984. TRC Inc. was founded to be a robotics research and development firm, however in 1988 the first mobile robot was installed near the factory in Danbury, CN. Currently there are over 90 HelpMates in service in the USA and abroad. They are installed in over 50 hospitals in the USA.
Engelberger has been the recipient of numerous awards. The received the 1995 Distinguished Service Award from Connecticut Innovations Inc., the Progress Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Leonardo do Vinci Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1982 he received the American Machinists Award.
There is also an annual Joseph F. Engelberger Award to, “persons who have contributed outstandingly to the furtherance of the science and practice of robotics,” presented by the Robotics Industry Association.