Sankyo Seiki · Industrial · 1981
The Sankyo Seiki Skilam is one of the first commercial SCARA robots — the SCARA concept (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) was invented by Professor Hiroshi Makino at the University of Yamanashi around 1978-1981, and Sankyo Seiki was among the pioneering manufacturers (with the Makino lab) to commercialise it as the Skilam line. The SCARA's defining trait is selective compliance: rigid in the vertical (Z) axis but compliant in the horizontal plane, making it ideal for vertical insertion and assembly tasks — peg-in-hole, screwdriving, electronics placement — at high speed. This 4-axis architecture (two horizontal rotary joints, a vertical Z, and end rotation) became one of the two dominant industrial-robot form factors worldwide, and virtually every modern SCARA (Epson, Stäubli TS2, Denso, Yamaha) descends from this lineage. NOTE: The original Skilam predates modern datasheet publication; this entry documents the historically verified milestone and architecture rather than inventing per-axis figures — specific payload/reach numbers for the original model are logged as outreach rather than guessed.
Price on application
View full interactive profile, comparisons & videos →| Category | Industrial |
| Sub-type | Historic SCARA Robot |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Year | 1981 |
| Origin | Japan |
| Announced | 1981 |
| Released | 1981 |
| Degrees of freedom | 4 |
| Actuator type | Servo-driven horizontal articulated arm + vertical Z + rotation |
| Use cases | Electronics assembly, Insertion, Pick & place, Screwdriving |
| Made in | Japan |