The very first concept - Robot
The word "Robot" comes from the 1921 play "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Capek (pronounced "chop'ek"). "Robot" comes from the Czech word "robota", meaning "forced labor." Karel Capek died just after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938, before the Gestapo (the German secret police) could get to him. The play was a great success when it opened in the U.S. The word "robotics" also comes from science fiction - it first appeared in the short story "Runaround" (1942) by Isaac Asimov. This story was later included in Asimov's famous book "I, Robot." The robot stories of Isaac Asimov also introduced the idea of a "positronic brain" (used by the character "Data" in Star Trek) and the "three laws of robotics."
via Adam's Robot Page
