Although the science of robotics only came about in the 20th century, the history of robots and human-invented automation has a much lengthier past. In fact, the ancient Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria produced two texts, Pneumatica and Automata, that testify to the existence of hundreds of different kinds of “wonder” machines capable of automated movement.
Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci is reputed to have created a mechanical lion made for a king. And there were those who say it moved on its own power.
The first use of the word “robot” occurred in a play about mechanical men that are built to work on factory assembly lines and that rebel against their human masters. These machines in R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), written by Czech playwright Karl Capek in 1921, got their name from the Czech word for slave.
The word “robotics” was also coined by a writer. Russian-born American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word in 1942 in his short story “Runabout.” Asimov had a much brighter and more optimistic opinion of the robot’s role in human society than did Capek. He generally characterized the robots in his short stories as helpful servants of man and viewed robots as “a better, cleaner race.” Asimov also proposed three “Laws of Robotics” that his robots, as well as sci-fi robotic characters of many other stories, followed:
Law One
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
Law Two
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
Law Three
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
