increased investment in robotic systems, Engelberger published articles and gave congressional testimony on the value of using automation in space long before the successes of NASA's Mars landers, Galileo, and other unmanned space science missions. He also consulted for NASA on the use of robotics in space exploration. Unimation purchased Victor Scheinman's Vicarm Inc. in 1977, and with Scheinman's help, the company created and began producing the Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly (PUMA), an all-electric robotic arm, designed to facilitate an arm solution that allowed full computer control using Scheinman's cutting-edge VAL programming language. The automotive companies that had been Unimation's earliest and most reliable clients began moving away from the use of hydraulically powered robotic arms, like the Unimate, in the early 1980s in favor of electric motors, a change that Engelberger vehemently opposed. Sales fell, and the company was acquired by Westinghouse in 1982 for $107 million. Engelberger, who had served as Unimation's chief executive since its inception, left the company not long thereafter. Magnetic propulsion In 1963 Engelberger filed with the US Patent Office his Application Ser. No. 324,928, then a second one with Ser. No. 638,666 in 1967, and US Patent No. 3,504,868 “Space Propulsion System” was registered in 1970. Numerical pioneering propositions and ideas of Engelberger in this work make him to be not only “The Father of Robotics” but also to be “The Father of Space Magnetic Propulsion” which may be considered as a prospective competitor with rocketry and a possible means for interstellar flight. HelpMate After observing the help for his aging parents, Engelberger saw the robotics automations could be used in the medical field. In 1984, Engelberger founded Transitions Research Corporation. He introduced the HelpMate, a mobile robot hospital courier, as the flagship product of his new company. He hoped to kick-start a new industry for in-home robots, but he started in 1988 by selling his first HelpMate to Danbury Hospital, located in the same Connecticut city where his company was based. The medical robot was successful enough that the hospital ended up purchasing another, and within a decade, well over 100 hospitals worldwide operated HelpMates, whether purchased outright or rented from Engelberger's company, which he renamed HelpMate Robotics Inc. After Engelberger was awarded the Japan Prize in 1997, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut delivered a floor speech in the U.S. Senate in praise and recognition of the inventor, calling HelpMate Robotics