KUKA

KUKA SE & Co. KGaA is a German automation and robotics company headquartered in Augsburg, Bavaria, which develops and manufactures industrial robots and provides automated manufacturing systems, intralogistics and warehouse automation, healthcare automation and software. It was founded in Augsburg in 1898 by Johann Josef Keller and Jakob Knappich, and the name comes from Keller und Knappich Augsburg. A merger with part of Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe AG produced Industrie-Werke Karlsruhe Augsburg Aktiengesellschaft, later shortened to KUKA. In 1973 it built FAMULUS, the first industrial robot with six electromechanically driven axes. It belonged to the Quandt group until 1980, acquired Swisslog in 2014, and was taken over by China's Midea Group, which bought a 94.55 percent stake in January 2017 and the remaining shares in 2022.