Stäubli Robotics marks 40 years in business

Stäubli Robotics, Duncan, S.C., is celebrating its 40th anniversary. This division of Swiss-based Stäubli Group, first ventured into robotics in 1982. A partnership with Unimation in Danbury, Conn., the world’s first-known manufacturer of articulated robots, led to the first distribution of 6-axis industrial robots. Later that same year, the two companies collaborated on their first SCARA robots. These hydraulic machines would later evolve into electrically driven SCARAs, and later still, into Stäubli’s 2021 Red Dot Award-winning TS2 SCARA.

Unimation was integrated into Stäubli in 1989, and in 1993 Stäubli rolled out its first robot produced entirely in-house: the Stäubli 6-axis RX90, which was the first fully encapsulated 6-axis robotic arm.

In 2018 Stäubli developed the first mobile robot system in collaboration with WFT. The company merged with Stäubli soon after, forming Stäubli WFT. Also in 2018 the company launched its TX2touch Power cobot.