What is a robot?

The word robot entered the modern language from the play R.U.R. by the Czech author, Karel Capek, which was published back in 1920. Roboti is supposed to be a Czech word meaning forced servitude. In the play, an industrialist learns how to build artificial people – not mechanical, metal men, but made of flesh and blood, who emerge from a factory fully grown. The English translation of the name as Rossum’s Universal Robots (R.U.R.) introduced the word "robot" to the world.