Published 2026-03-24.
Time to read: 2 minutes.
robotics collection.
My first-hand experience of working with a robot was in 1980, after graduating from Carleton University with an Electrical Engineering degree. I learned that the Engineering department had a Puma Unimation robot arm, unused, in a locked room that no-one visited. It was simple to access because no-one else was booking time with it. This robotic arm robotic arm had six degrees of freedom. It was designed for assembly tasks and became widely used in industrial applications during the 1980s.
This robotic arm moved slowly and was simple to operate, however it was quite crude.
In 1988 I wrote the software for the graphics display subsystem of a giant robotic arm for non-contact inspection of nuclear reactors for Ontario Hydro. The "fingers" at the end of the arm terminated in sensors that would position themselves very close to the surface being inspected.
Willow Garage of Silicon Valley (Menlo Park) developed the Robotics Operating System (ROS) from 2007 to 2013. In 2008, I was fortunate to be a contractor, tasked with developing the mission planning software for an autonomous boat. The founder, Scott Hassan, was interested in developing personal robots. Willow Garage employed 65 PhDs at that time. PR1 (and later, PR2) robots were everywhere in the office; however they were in pieces most of the time.
In 2025, the Unitree company of China shipped 5,500 G1 personal robots, at an median price of ~$16,000 USD. This humanoid robot is designed for household assistance (cleaning, tidying, folding laundry, trash removal, setting tables, and opening fridges). It can be configured, at extra cost, with the ability to learn movements in real-time by watching humans and copying them.
Maybe I need to hop on over to China and see this critter for myself, up close and personal.
