There are several patents that I find interesting that I thought I would list here.
4,479,335 Electronic Controller & Programming System...
4,816,911 Handling Process & Information Station...
4,187,051 Rotarty Video Article Centering...
4,493,245 Rotary_and_linear_actuating_device
6,690,978 GPS Signal Driven Sensor Positioning System
5,617,762 Miniature Positioning Device
I met George Devol at an International Symposium on Industrial Robots when he finally won the Engelberger Award. I have a great deal of respect for his work. He was the father of what would become the Unimation robot. One needs only to look at some of his patents and the dates associated with them to understand how pioneering his work really was. I have included several of them, but I didn't do a thorough search of everything he held patents on.
DEVOL_CONTROLLED_TOGGLE_MECHANISMS
DEVOL_PROGRAMMED_ARTICLE_HANDLING
DUAL_ARMED_MULTI_AXES_PROGRAM_CONTROLLED
WORK_HEAD_AUTOMATIC_MOTIONS_CONTROLS
More to come later. (Still under construction)