Industrial robotics
AI milestones in industrial robotics, part of robotics and autonomy.
6 milestones
Textron Systems Unveils Ripsaw M5 Robotic Combat Vehicle
In October 2019, Textron Systems unveiled the Ripsaw M5 Robotic Combat Vehicle at the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., demonstrating an unmanned ground vehicle with autonomous navigation, 360-degree situational awareness, and configurable mission payloads.
BigDog Quadruped Robot by Boston Dynamics
Around 2005, Boston Dynamics, under DARPA funding, developed BigDog, a four-legged quadruped robot capable of traversing rough terrain and carrying payloads of approximately 154 kg. BigDog demonstrated dynamic balance and legged locomotion at a scale and capability not previously achieved in a field robot.
DARPA Centibots Project
DARPA funded the Centibots project, a multi-institution effort to demonstrate coordinated autonomous mapping and search using up to 100 mobile robots simultaneously, with results reported from 2003. It addressed whether large teams of robots could self-organise without continuous human supervision.
iRobot Roomba Launch
In September 2002, iRobot Corporation released the Roomba, a disc-shaped autonomous vacuum cleaner priced at USD 199. The product demonstrated that a reactive, behaviour-based robot could navigate unstructured domestic environments without maps, bringing autonomous robotics into mainstream consumer households.
iRobot PackBot Deployed at World Trade Center Disaster Site
In September 2001, iRobot Corporation deployed PackBot ground robots to search the rubble of the World Trade Center following the 11 September attacks, representing one of the first operational uses of an autonomous mobile robot in a disaster-response mission.
Unimate Installed on General Motors Assembly Line
In 1961, the Unimate robot, designed by George Devol and developed commercially by Unimation Inc., was installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey, becoming the first industrial robot deployed in a production manufacturing environment.