By Dag Andreassen , conservator at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology

The trolley factory at Bryne was started by Nils Underhaug in 1941, and produced wheelbarrows and other trolleys at Bryne. Underhaug was a modern-oriented industrial leader who was constantly looking for better ways to produce the trolleys. Rationalization and modern production were in the air at this time, and much discussed. Underhaug was excited about robots, which were widely discussed, but then discovered that there was no one on the market who could do what he thought would be a good idea to leave to a robot: It should spray paint wheelbarrows to prevent people from coming into direct contact with the dangerous chemicals from the painting. The search for such a robot began in 1964 - and accustomed as they were to finding local solutions, they decided to make one themselves, in collaboration with local technical forces.

In 1967, the first prototype of the Trallfa painting robot was finished. Even by modern robotic standards, it was pretty advanced: even though it only had two joints and a movable spray head, it was sufficient to get the job done. The most impressive thing was that it could be programmed by an experienced painter doing the movements, and the robot would follow and record the human's movement on magnetic tape, which could then be played back over and over as a machine copy of the painter's movement.

The prototype was then further developed into a separate industrial product that could be marketed from 1969 as the first spray painting robot Trallfa 2000, if this and later models were

produced in thousands at Bryne and exported all over the world. The trolley factory at Bryne was a great success on the world market. At one point, every third car and 70% of all the world's computers will have been spray painted by an ABB robot, originating from Jæren.

The robot division of Trallefabrikken, Trallfa Robot, was taken over in 1985-89 by Swedish ASEA, which later became ABB. The industrial giant, which became one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial robots, retained the department at Bryne as its premier production and development environment. Production in Rogaland was shut down in 2011, but ABB still has one of its global competence centers for robots in Bryne.

Industrial robots have no intelligence. They can do exactly what they are programmed to do, over and over without stopping for a long time. Programming and controlling robots in production are typical tasks in modern industry.

Mobility, sensor control and programming are the most important things that distinguish industrial robots from other advanced production equipment. Industrial robots can perform heavy, dangerous and repetitive sequences in production, they are used for transport, product packaging and warehouse management.

Every year, 150,000 new robots are installed in factories worldwide. In Denmark and Sweden, there are 150 robots for every 10,000 workers. In Norway, there are only 40. It is a stated aim to increase the robot density in Norway.

In the same way that many protested that early industrial machines mechanized away jobs, people have been concerned that industrial robots would threaten jobs. Robots have also reduced the need for labor in many parts of the production lines in industry.

At the same time, this helps to make the industry more efficient and competitive, thus contributing to secure jobs. Robots have often taken over dangerous and monotonous tasks, and contributed to making industrial work safer, more varied and interesting.