American robotics

Robots of the United States include simple household robots such as Roomba to sophisticated autonomous aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper that cost 18 million dollars per unit. The first industrial robot, robot company, and exoskeletons as well as the first dynamically balancing, organic, and nanoscale robots originate from the United States.

History

In 1898 Nikola Tesla publicly demonstrated a radio-controlled torpedo. Based on patents for "teleautomation", Tesla hoped to develop it into a weapon system for the US Navy.

In 1926, Westinghouse Electric Corporation created Televox, the first robot put to useful work. In the 1930s, they created a humanoid robot known as Elektro for exhibition purposes, including the 1939 and 1940 World's Fairs.

Unimate was the first industrial robot, which worked on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey in 1961. It was created by George Devol in the 1950s using his original patents. Devol, together with Joseph F. Engelberger started Unimation, the world's first robot manufacturing company.

In 2008 the U.S. Air Force 174th Fighter Wing transitioned from F-16 piloted planes to MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are capable remote controlled or autonomous flight, becoming the first all-robot attack squadron.

Modern robots

Domestic

PatrolBot a configurable guide/delivery/surveillance robot
Roomba a vacuum cleaner
Scooba a floor washer
Looj a rain gutter cleaner

Military (offensive/multi-role)

Aerial

Terrestrial

Black Knight unmanned tank
Gladiator tactical unmanned ground vehicle
MarkV-A1
MULE / XM1219
PackBot / SUGV
TALON

Military (non-offensive)

Aerial

Terrestrial

Nanoscale

New York University walking DNA robot Smallest Robot: Science Videos - Science News - ScienCentral

Walker

BigDog dynamically balancing quadruped
Anybots Dexter, the first dynamically balancing biped
Timberjack Walking Machine logger

Non-autonomous (human operated)

These machines are human operated and not autonomous. Therefore, they do fit the classical description of a robot.

Exoskeleton

Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton
Sarcos/Raytheon XOS Exoskeleton, currently the most advanced exoskeleton, research for the XOS is funded by DARPA and NIST for use in the military and to "replace the wheelchair".

Military

MQ-1 Predator

Research

Tufts University morphing chemical robot Tufts to develop morphing 'chemical robots'

Software

Microsoft Robotics Studio - .NET based
VxWorks - operating system, notably used by ASIMO
Robot App Store - Apps for every robot