Robots began as entertainment for royalty. Inventors such as Al-Jazari and Leonardo Da Vinci worked to build automatons for their benefactors. Al-Jazari built a floating band that resembled humans and performed various songs and drum beats depending on the programming of a series of pegs. Da Vinci created a automaton based on the knight's armor. It could stand and move its arms and neck, as well as open its mouth.
It wasn't until 1961--when an inventor named George Devol installed his robot, Unimate, into a General Motors factory in Trenton, New Jersey--that the first modern industrial use of the robot was attempted. Unimate would lift die-cut metal pieces and stack them for the human workers. This development changed the dynamics of robotics and brought them into the workplace, making them pivotal to a business.