In 1961, the first industrial robot was installed at a GM factory in Ewing Township, NJ, to lift hot pieces of metal from a die-casting machine. Soon, Chrysler, Ford, Fiat and other manufacturers would also be employing robots at their factories for machine tending, spot welding and other applications.
The automotive industry never looked back. Today, in fact, the industry has the largest number of robots working in factories around the world: Operational stock hit a new record of 1 million units in 2021, according to the latest figures from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). This represents about a third of the total number of robots installed across all industries.