robot

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robot

robot or automaton mechanical device designed to perform the work generally done by a human being. The Czech dramatist Karel Čapek popularized the expression [Czech,=compulsory labor] in his play R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), produced in Prague in 1921. Modern robotics has produced innumerable devices that replace human personnel, and the term robot is used to designate much of this machinery. It is used frequently in fiction, referring to a self-controlling machine shaped like a human being. While the concept has been the subject of stories since the golem of medieval times, it reached its greatest exposure in popular culture with the work of Isaac Asimov in the 1950s and the motion picture robots Robby in Forbidden Planet (1956) and C-3PO in Star Wars (1977).

Bibliography: See G. Wood, Edison's Eve: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life (2002).

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"robot." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 28 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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robot

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology | 1996 | | Â© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

robot mechanism doing the work of a man, automaton. XX. — Czech, f. robota compulsory service.

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T. F. HOAD. "robot." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "robot." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (November 28, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-robot.html

T. F. HOAD. "robot." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved November 28, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-robot.html

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robot

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Â© World Encyclopedia 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

robot Automated machine used to carry out various tasks. Robots are often computer-controlled, the most common type having a single arm that can move in any direction. Such robots are used in mass production. See also artificial intelligence (AI); automation

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