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100 Years of Robots

In fiction, industry and leisure, our automated companions have grown more sophisticated and widespread with every passing year.

Christopher Mims and Michael Bucher
Updated Jan. 23, 2021
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1921 - ‘R.U.R.'

With a title that stood for 'Rossum’s Universal Robots,' this play by Czech intellectual Karel Čapek introduced the word 'robot' to the English language.

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1939 - Speaking on the Record

Elektro, a 7-foot-tall, 265-pound humanoid robot, was first exhibited at the New York World’s Fair. He could 'speak' by playing tracks from a 78-rpm record player.

Prelinger Archive

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1956 - ‘Forbidden Planet'

Delivering flowers and other friendly gestures made the film's Robby the Robot a campy cult favorite.

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1961 - The World’s First Industrial Robot

The Unimate 1900 was installed at a General Motors factory in 1961, with the promise that 'it could take over a lot of unpleasant jobs.'

Associated Press

1977 - ‘Star Wars'

George Lucas has called R2-D2 his favorite 'Star Wars' character. That's why the iconic droid saves the day at least once in every Lucas-directed film in the series.

Everett Collection

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1980 - Rock-afire Rocks the House

A sophisticated system for its day, actions of the Rock-afire Explosion animatronic characters were coded on the Apple IIe and performed in Chuck E. Cheese restaurants.

Creative Engineering

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1984 - ‘The Terminator'

To this day, perhaps no robot dominates discussion about the downsides of artificial intelligence as the relentless, amoral, nearly indestructible Terminator demonstrated in this scene.

1985 - A Friend to Play With

Nintendo’s 'Robotic Operating Buddy' was only a part of two games, but it was a marketing coup for the company's then-new videogame-console business.

Nintendo

1986 - ‘Short Circuit'

Johnny 5 was 'acted' by a puppeteer wearing a 'telemetry suit' that allowed the on-screen robot to copy his actions—an early example of telepresence.

Everett Collection

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1997 - Rolling on the Red Planet

The Sojourner Mars rover was the first wheeled robot to explore another world.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

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1999 - ‘The Matrix'

After the Terminator, Sentinels were the next evolution of the killer-robot trope. Their ability to 'fly,' as in this scene, made them even more terrifying.

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2000 - This Robot's Made for Walking

Asimo, a Honda research project named for science-fiction author Isaac Asimov, led to walking-assistance devices intended to help humans maintain their mobility as they age.

Honda

2004 - ‘I, Robot'

Asimov's laws governing robot behavior to keep humans safe were included in a 1950 collection titled 'I, Robot.' A film of the same name was inspired by his work, but stayed true to genre in depicting rogue robots.

Everett Collection

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2005 - Stanley Finishes First

Stanford University engineers' vehicle Stanley won a U.S. government-sponsored contest by completing a driving route autonomously—an early instance of everyday objects gaining robotic qualities.

Rod Fritz, WB9KMO

2008 - ‘Wall-E'

By imagining a future in which robots serve humans rather than dominate them, the Pixar production offered a surprisingly realistic depiction of our current relationship with automation.

Everett Collection

2012 - Kiva Systems

Kiva pioneered robots in logistics. Its $775 million sale to Amazon in 2012 kicked off an automation arms race in the supply chain.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

2014 - ‘Big Hero 6'

The Disney film's giant Baymax character was inspired by real-life robots made from soft pneumatic or hydraulic parts.

Everett Collection

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2016 - A Walk in the Woods

Boston Dynamics' Atlas Robot shows just how far balance and bipedalism in robots has come, and how close they could be to directly replacing humans in some tasks.

Boston Dynamics

2017 - ‘Blade Runner 2049'

Perhaps no contemporary film is a more direct descendent of Čapek’s 'R.U.R.' than the movies inspired by a 1968 Philip K. Dick novel.

Everett Collection

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2018 - Robots on the Battlefield

Shield AI's Nova Quadcopter, the first autonomous robot of its kind used in combat, allows soldiers to peer into a building before they enter.

Shield AI

Cover

Everett Collection