Joseph Engelberger

Who was Joseph Engelberger?

Joseph Frederick Engelberger (July 26, 1925 – December 1, 2015) was an American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur. Often regarded as the "Father of Robotics". Joseph Frederick Engelberger was born in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Connecticut during the Great Depression, but later returned to New York City for his college education. Engelberger received his B.S. in physics in 1946, and M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1949 from Columbia University. Later, he worked as entrepreneur and vocal advocate of robotic technology beyond the manufacturing plant in a variety of fields, including service industries, health care, and space exploration. He worked as an engineer with Manning, Maxwell and Moore, where he met inventor George Devol at a Westport cocktail party in 1956, two years after Devol had designed and patented a rudimentary industrial robotic arm.

However, Manning, Maxwell and Moore was sold and Engelberger's division was closed that year.

Historical significance

Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s.