Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly
The PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly, or Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm) is an industrial robotic arm developed by Victor Scheinman at pioneering robot company Unimation. Initially developed by Unimation for General Motors, the PUMA was based on earlier designs Scheinman invented while at Stanford University based on sponsorship and mentoring from robot inventor George Devol.[ 1]
Unimation produced PUMAs for years until being purchased by Westinghouse (ca. 1980), and later by Swiss company Stäubli (1988). Nokia Robotics manufactured about 1500 PUMA robots during the 1980s, the Puma-560 being their most popular model with customers. Some own Nokia Robotics products were also designed, like Nokia NS-16 Industrial Robot or NRS-15[ 2] . Nokia sold their Robotics division in 1990.
In 2002, General Motors Controls, Robotics and Welding (CRW) organization donated the original prototype PUMA robot to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. It joins a collection of historically important robots that includes an early Unimate and the Odetics Odex 1.[ 3]
