George A. Bekey spent several years with Beckman Instruments and TRW Systems before joining the faculty of the University of Southern California, where his work as a roboticist focused on ethics, robot-human interaction, and biomedical engineering.

Beckman Instruments' analog computers were being produced by their Berkeley Division as early as 1953. The company produced analog computers -- also called automation, data reduction, or data handling systems -- for the petroleum, aerospace, and defense industries. Beckman Instruments eventually stopped producing these systems after their cost and the time required to customize them kept them from being widely adopted.