Origins of Robotics

The idea of artificial beings and machines that mimic life is ancient. Here we trace the origins of robotics from early automatons to the first industrial robots and beyond.

Early history

Ancient civilizations built mechanical devices and automatons. Greek engineers described water-powered figures; in the Islamic Golden Age, Al-Jazari created programmable humanoid automata. In the 18th and 19th centuries, clockwork automatons entertained courts. The word "robot" entered the language in 1920 with Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots).

From fiction to factory

Industrial robotics took off in the mid-20th century with programmable machines for manufacturing. Unimation's Unimate, installed in 1961, is often cited as the first industrial robot. Since then, robots have spread from factories to warehouses, surgery, space, and everyday life.