This is how far robots have come since the 1930s

In 1954, George Devol and Joe Engleberger designed the first programmable robot 'arm'.

Seven years later, the 'arm' joined the assembly line at a New Jersey General Motors plant.

Its function was to drop hot molten steel car parts into cooling liquid on a line that moved them along to workers.

The image on the right shows recent robots from assembly lines. The 1961 version was much smaller but it was the parent of this concept.