Robot Lamp: From Anglepoise to Pixar and ABB

A robot lamp may sound like a toy, yet the idea goes back almost a century. The balanced arm desk lamp gave us a machine with joints, springs and a head that points where you need light, and Pixar turned that shape into a character with a personality. Researchers and startups are now building lamps that move by themselves, look at you and even fold laundry. This post follows the robot lamp from George Carwardine's 1932 design through smart bulbs to today's expressive prototypes, and asks what small ABB cobots have in common with them.

An early Anglepoise 1227 lamp with a worn cream finish. Photo: renaissance chambara via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

From spring balanced lamps to a famous animated one

George Carwardine, a British car designer who specialised in vehicle suspension, designed the Anglepoise lamp in 1932. While working on suspension ideas he came up with a spring and lever mechanism that could hold an arm in any position without clamps, and he saw that it would suit a task lamp. He applied for a patent on 4 July 1932 and at first made the lamp himself in his own workshop in Bath. In February 1934 he licensed it to Herbert Terry and Sons in Redditch, who made and sold it while he went on developing new versions.

A Type 1227 Anglepoise lamp from 1935, designed by George Carwardine and made by Herbert Terry and Sons, at the Design Museum in London. Photo: Daderot via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

The original four spring lamp was meant for workshops and for doctors' and dentists' surgeries. Carwardine also designed a three spring version for the home, and the Anglepoise 1227 went on sale in 1935 and sold well. Other makers used the same principle, among them the Norwegian Luxo L-1, and the balanced arm lamp became a fixture of drawing offices and desks. Mechanically it already looked like a robot arm, with links, joints and a payload at the end, except that springs did the work that motors do in a robot.

The three springs at the base of an Anglepoise 90 lamp that balance its arm. Photo: TheGoodEndedHappily via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 1986 Pixar gave the desk lamp a personality. Luxo Jr., written and directed by John Lasseter, is a two minute film about a large lamp and a small one that plays with a ball. It premiered at SIGGRAPH 1986 in Dallas, where the audience was on its feet applauding before it ended, and it became the first computer animated film nominated for an Academy Award. The small lamp is still Pixar's mascot. Lasseter used classic animation principles so that the lamps show emotion only through the way they move.

A white balanced arm lamp of the Anglepoise type, photographed on a lawn. Photo: Northernhenge via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Smart lamps and expressive robot lamps today

The first smart lamps changed the bulb and left the arm alone. Philips Hue, released in October 2012 through the Apple Store, was the first commercially available line of smart bulbs, controlled from a phone. In January 2025 Apple researchers Yuhan Hu, Peide Huang, Mouli Sivapurapu and Jian Zhang published ELEGNT, a paper on a lamp-like robot with a six axis arm and a head carrying a light and a projector. In their user study, movements designed to be expressive engaged people more than purely functional ones, especially in social tasks.

A Philips Hue bridge with two smart bulbs, 2014. Photo: Sho Hashimoto via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The newest robot lamps also do chores. Stanford robotics researcher Aaron Tan posted a teaser for Lume in July 2025, showing a pair of bedside lamps that bend down and fold laundry, and the clip reached 3.8 million views in 48 hours. On 14 September 2026 Notebookcheck reported that his company Syncere had unveiled the Lume floor lamp. Unfolded, it can fold laundry, load and empty a dishwasher, tidy rooms and make the bed, and the rest of the time it gives reading and ambient light. Deliveries are due to start in early 2027, at more than 2,700 euros in Europe.

A Philips Hue table lamp giving off white light, 2021. Photo: Mateus2019 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

ABB does not make robot lamps. Its smallest cobots do share the layout, though: a compact arm with a tool at the end. A GoFa CRB 15000 or a SWIFTI CRB 1100 can carry a camera, a light or a gripper, and a single-arm YuMi IRB 14050 is small enough to sit on a desk. In factories that make lamps and lighting, arms like these could possibly assemble fittings, test light output and pack finished lamps. Our post on no code robot programming shows how people teach cobots by guiding them by hand instead of writing code.

ABB's GoFa and SWIFTI cobots at their launch in February 2021. Photo: ABB

What comes next for robot lamps

At home, a lamp may be one of the easier ways for a robot to move in. It already has a place on the desk or beside the bed, so a moving version needs no extra space and looks familiar. We will probably see more products that combine light with a camera for video calls, reminders and small physical tasks. The ELEGNT study suggests that the way a lamp moves matters as much as what it does, which is what Pixar's animators showed with two lamps and a ball in 1986.

Anki's Vector, a small home robot, on its charger with its cube in 2018. Photo: Ian Hughes via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

In factories the outlook is more down to earth. Lighting makers assemble many small variants, which suits cobots that can be retaught quickly, and products like Lume will need careful assembly and testing of their own arms, joints and sensors. Programs for cells like that are usually built and checked first in RobotStudio. Our post on companion robots for kids looks at another kind of home robot that has to win people over before it can be useful.

An engineer programs an ABB SWIFTI CRB 1100 cobot with a tablet at a small workshop bench. Photo: ABB

Price comes first among the open problems: a lamp that folds laundry for more than 2,700 euros is a luxury for now. An arm moving near faces, pets and children also has to sense contact and stop, as cobots do in factories. Privacy is another worry, because a robot lamp has to watch its owner to be helpful. Reliability is the hardest part. Folding clothes and loading dishwashers involve soft and fragile objects that still trip up most robots, and Lume owners can wear a wristband to show the lamp how they like their clothes folded.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot at a work table. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com