History of Lab Automation
Laboratory automation was made possible through advances in instrumentation, robotics, and computers.
| 1941-5 | First automated laboratory devices (distilation units, automatic titrators, polarographs, recording instruments, water stills) |
| 1946 | First general purpose computer |
| 1950s | Microtitler plate (microplate) developed |
| 1951 | First teleoperated articulated arm |
| 1952 | First numerically-controlled machine tool demonstrated |
| 1954 | First programmable robot |
| 1960 | Transistors replace vacuum tubes |
| 1961-62 | First industrial robot (Unimate) |
| 1965 | Carnegie Mellon Universiiy establishes Robotics Institute |
| 1967 | First robot imported into Japan |
| 1969 | First programmable controller (PLC) |
| 1970s | 96-well microplate format introduced |
| 1970 | Standard Arm designed |
| 1976 | Viking 1 and 2 space probes use robot arms and microprocessor incorporated into the design |
| 1983 | First microprocessor-based motion controller |
| 1996 | Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) formed |
| 1997 | RoboDesign International founded |
| 1997 | Mars Pathfinder robot lands on Mars |
| 2003 | Human Genome project presented complete version |
| 2005 | Let's Go Robotics founded |
