engineering

George Devol

George Devol is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George Devol rather than just read about it. In short: George Charles Devol Jr. (February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011) was an American inventor, best known for creating Unimate, the first industrial robot.

Key takeaways

George Devol belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George Devol to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George Devol from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Charles Devol Jr. (February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011) was an American inventor, best known for creating Unimate, the first industrial robot. The National Inventors Hall of Fame says, "Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry."

Early life George Devol was born in an upper-middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Riordan Prep school.

United Cinephone

Foregoing higher education, Devol went into business in 1932, forming United Cinephone to produce variable area recording directly onto film for the new sound motion pictures ("talkies"). However, he later learned that companies like RCA and Western Electric were working in the same area, and discontinued the product.

World War II In 1939, Devol applied for a patent for proximity controls for use in laundry press machines, based on a radio frequency field. This control would automatically open and close laundry presses when workers approached the machines. After World War II began, the patent office told Devol that his patent application would be placed on hold for the duration of the conflict. Around that time, Devol sold his interest in United Cinephone and approached Sperry Gyroscope to pitch his ideas on radar technology. He was retained by Sperry as manager of the Special Projects Department, which developed radar devices and microwave test equipment. In 1943, he organized General Electronics Industries in Greenwich, Connecticut, as a subsidiary of the Auto Ordnance Corporation. General Electronics produced counter-radar devices until the end of the war. General Electronics was one of the largest producers of radar and radar counter-measure equipment for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army Air Force and other government agencies. The company's radar counter-measure systems were on Allied planes on D-Day. Over a difference of opinion regarding the future of certain projects, Devol resigned from Auto Ordinance and joined RCA. After a short stint as eastern sales manager of electronics products, which he felt "wasn't his ball of wax", Devol left RCA to develop ideas that eventually led to the patent application for the first industrial robot. In 1946, he applied for a patent on a magnetic recording system for controlling machines and a digital playback device for machines. Devol was part of the team that developed the first commercial use of microwave oven technology, the Speedy Weeny, which automatically cooked and dispensed hotdogs in places such as Grand Central Terminal. In the early 1950s, Devol licensed his digital magnetic recording device to Remington Rand of Norwalk, Connecticut, and became manager of their magnetics department. There he worked with a team to develop his magnetic recording system for business data applications. He also worked on developing the first high-speed printing systems. While the magnetic recording system proved too slow for business data, Devol's invention was re-purposed as a machine control that would eventually become the "brains" of the Unimate robot.

The first industrial robot: Unimate

In the 1940s, Devol was focusing on manipulators and his magnetic recording patents, but he took note of the introduction of automation into factories. In 1954, he applied for his robotics patent. U.S. patent 2,988,237, issued in 1961 for Programmed Article Transfer, introduced the concept of universal automation, or Unimation. His wife Evelyn suggested the word "Unimate" to define the product, much the same as George Eastman had coined Kodak.

Devol wrote that his invention "makes available for the first time a more or less general purpose machine that has universal application to a vast diversity of applications where cyclic digital control is desired." After applying for this patent Devol searched for a company willing to give him financial backing to develop his programmable articles transfer system. He talked with many major corporations in the United States during his search. Through family connections, Devol obtained an audience with a partner in the firm Manning, Maxwell and Moore in Stratford, Connecticut. Joseph F. Engelberger, chief of engineering in the company's aircraft products division was very interested, and Devol agreed to license his patent and some future patents in the field to the company. But the company was sold that year and its aircraft division was slated to be closed. Engelberger sought a backer to buy out the aircraft division and found one in Consolidated Diesel Electronic (Condec), which agreed to finance the continued development of the robot under a new division, Unimation Incorporated, with Engelberger as its president. The first Unimate prototypes were controlled by vacuum tubes used as digital switches though later versions used transistors. Most off-the-shelf components available in the late 1950s, such as digital encoders, were inadequate for the Unimate. With Devol's guidance, a team of engineers at Unimation designed and machined practically every part in the first Unimates. In 1960, Devol personally sold the first Unimate robot, which was shipped in 1961 to General Motors. GM first used the machine for die casting handling and spot welding. The first Unimate robot was installed at GM's Inland Fisher Guide Plant in Ewing Township, New Jersey, in 1961 to lift hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine and stack them. Soon companies such as Chrysler, Ford, and Fiat saw the necessity for large Unimate purchases. The company spent about $5 million to develop the first Unimate. In 1966, after many years of market surveys and field tests, full-scale production began in Connecticut. Unimation's first production robot was a materials handling robot and was soon followed by robots for welding and other applications. In 1975, Unimation showed its first profit. In 1978, the PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly) robot was developed by Unimation from Vicarm (Victor Scheinman) and with support from General Motors. In 2005, Popular Mechanics magazine selected Devol's Unimate as one of the Top 50 Inventions of the Past 50 Years.

Additional work Elected to honorary member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (1985) Inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame (2011) Member of the Automation Hall of Fame Henry Ford and Smithsonian Museum collections both include Unimate robots Devol's archives are with the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

George Devol: Phantom Doorman automatic door — Phantom Doorman automatic door

George Devol: The first static magnetic recorder that used a saw blade to record information — The first static magnetic recorder that used a saw blade to record information

George Devol: U.S. Patent 2,988,237, issued in 1961 to Devol — U.S. Patent 2,988,237, issued in 1961 to Devol

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Devol

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Devol claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George Devol before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George Devol ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George Devol

In research: George Devol appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George Devol in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George Devol is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1912 births, 2011 deaths, 20th-century American inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Devol outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George Devol in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George Devol means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George Devol out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George Devol in simple terms?

George Charles Devol Jr. (February 20, 1912 – August 11, 2011) was an American inventor, best known for creating Unimate, the first industrial robot.

Why does George Devol matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George Devol?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George Devol.