Believers in the robotics industry are beginning to put money into the development of robots for the service sector despite the humiliating setbacks which their manufactured progeny caused them in the industrial sector. General Motors Corp was the biggest company to get its fingers burned when attempting to automate its car assembly lines and after plants full of robots started to behave as if they were in a kindergarten rather than at work, painting each other instead of the cars, the robotics industry slumped. Joseph Engelberger, whose company Unimation Inc installed the first industrial robot in the the US in 1961, sold his business to Westinghouse Electric Corp in 1983; but now he is back in the robotics business with a new company Transitions Research Inc. According to the New York Times, Engelberger is developing a robot called Helpmate, designed to act as a nurse’s aide by delivering medicines and meals. Another devotee of the robot is Walter Wiesel whose company Prab Robots Inc produces large material handling robots. Wiesel, however, is now branching out into the caring side of the robotics industry with a new company, Prab Command Inc, which specialises in a system designed to enable a person without the use of arms or legs to work in an office. The system, which costs $30,000 to $50,000, includes a personal computer, a robot arm and normal office equipment all of which is activated by speaking commands into a microphone. Some commentators believe that this nascent service robot industry is set to take off rapidly. Eric Mittelstadt president of GMF Robotics, forecasts annual sales growth of 25% to 30% once the upturn begins. All of which is good news for companies specialising in robotics as they face what Dataquest analysts predict to be an otherwise miserable compound growth rate of 4% through 1992.
