Robotics Pioneer Joseph Engelberger Receives IEEE Award

Newtown resident Joseph F. Engelberger, retired robotics developer from HelpMate Robotics, Inc, has been named the recipient of the 2004 IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Robotics and Automation Award.

The prize honors Mr Engelberger, known to many of his peers as the “father of robotics,” for a lifetime of achievement in establishing and advancing the field of robotics and automation worldwide.

“His foresight of robots’ potential to help humanity and his tireless efforts to make that vision a reality have helped transform our society,” the IEEE said in a news release.

Robots have become an integral part of industrial production and have begun to appear in household and health care applications. Mr Engelberger’s breakthrough service robot, HelpMate, moved the field forward as it delivered meals to hospital patients, negotiated hallways and elevators, and followed internal hospital maps.

Sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, the award recognizes extraordinary contributions in the field. It will be presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation this week in New Orleans, La.

Mr Engelberger founded the pioneering HelpMate Robotics Inc in Danbury in 1984, and he served as its chairman until his retirement and the company’s merger with Pyxis Corporation in San Diego, in 1999. In his current work, he intends to expand the use of robots even farther by developing a two-armed, mobile, sensate, and articulate robot that can assist elderly and infirm individuals in the home, allowing them to postpone institutionalization.

Mr Engelberger’s initial foray into automation was his founding of the pioneering industrial robot company Unimation Inc in Danbury in 1961. At Unimation, he contributed to both the design and industrial application of a line of robots that were widely acclaimed for their innovative mechanical engineering, control, and programming. Mr Engelberger’s innovations at Unimation in the 1970s had particular impact on the then-nascent Japanese robotics industry, now the world’s leader in industrial robot production. He served as the president and director of Unimation until its 1983 sale to the Westinghouse Electric Company.

Mr Engelberger also worked as an engineer for Manning Maxwell & Moore in Los Angeles. In 1957, he founded Consolidated Controls Corporation in Danbury, serving as its president for two decades. He was vice president of Condec Corporation in Stamford from 1965 to 1986.

A member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, Joseph Engelberger has received the University of Liverpool’s (UK) McKechnie Award and the Japan Prize. Additional honors bestowed upon him include the American Die Casting Institutions Nyselius Award, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Progress Award, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Leonardo da Vinci Award, the American Machinist Award, and Columbia University’s Egleston Medal.

The 2000 World Automation Congress was dedicated to Mr Engelberger, whom The London Sunday Times then named one of the “1,000 Makers of the 20th Century.” The Robotic Industries Association annually presents the Joseph F. Engelberger Robotics Awards. He has written numerous articles and books, including Robotics in Practice and Robotics in Service.

Joseph Engelberger earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and electrical engineering degrees at Columbia University in New York. He has received honorary doctorates from five institutions, including Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn.

The IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional society with more than 360,000 members in approximately 170 countries. Through its members, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a leading authority on areas ranging from aerospace, computers, and telecommunications to biomedicine, electric power, and consumer electronics. The IEEE produces 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, has created more than 850 active consensus standards, and sponsors or cosponsors more than 350 technical conferences each year. Additional information about IEEE can be found at www.ieee.org.