Mechanical arm
Other robotic arms were invented in 1961 by Unimate, evolving to the PUMA arm. In 1963, the Rancho arm was designed, along with many others in the future. Even though Joseph Engelberger marketed Unimate, George Devol invented the robotic arm. It focused on using Unimate for tasks that are harmful to humans. In 1959, a 2700 pound Unimate prototype was installed at the General Motors die-casting plant in Trenton, New Jersey. The Unimate 1900 series became the very first produced robotic arm for die-casting. During a very short period of time, it had produced at least 450 robotic arms were being used. It still remains one of the most significant contributions in the last one hundred years. As years went by, technology seemed to evolve, helping to build better robotic arms. Not only companies invented different robotic arms, but so did colleges. In 1969, Victor Scheinman from Stanford University invented the Stanford arm, where it had electronically powered arms that could move through six axes. Marvin Minsky, from MIT, built a robotic arm for the office of Naval Research, possibly for underwater explorations. This arm had twelve single degree freedom joints in this electric- hydraulic- high dexterity arm. Robots were initially created to perform a series of tasks that humans found boring, harmful, and tedious.
Animatronics
In 1515, Leonardo da Vinci designed and built the Automata Lion, one of the earliest described animatrons. The mechanical lion was presented by Giuliano de’ Medici of Florence to Francois I, King of France as a symbol of an alliance between France and Florence. The Automata Lion was rebuilt in 2009 according to contemporary descriptions and da Vinci's own drawings of the mechanism. Prior to this, da Vinci had designed and exhibited a mechanical knight at a celebration hosted by Ludovico Sforza at the court of Milan in 1495. The 'robot' was capable of standing, sitting, opening its visor and moving its arms. The drawings were rediscovered in the 1950s and a functional replica was later built.