Being born in Czechoslovakia, I can’t help but write a blog entry on this topic today. January 25 may seem like an ordinary day, but 86 years ago (the year 1921 to be more precise), the word robot was first used.

Karel Capek’s play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) opened at the National Theatre in Prague. The robots in his play were not sentient mechanical creatures with complex artificial intelligence. Capek didn’t know what AI was because it, along with electronic computers, didn’t exist yet. His robots were created from a chemical mold and looked exactly like humans. This is one way of keeping costs down for special effects and costumes!

The word robot originated from the Czech word robota. It meant compulsory labour or work. The word robot was first used in the English language in 1923. Capek admitted that it was his brother Josef, a painter, who thought of the word.

I think that a more appropriate description of Capek’s robots would be that of genetically engineered people. Beings created from a chemical mold and their intelligence programmed for a specific purpose.

Anyways, Capek’s play inspired authors and scientists in the years to come. Everyone has seen movies or read books about robots.

You can do your own R&D in robots with the Microsoft Robotic Studio. Any .NET language in Visual Studio can be used to program Lego Mindstorms. The components for building a Lego robot are expensive, but it can be rewarding because you will learn useful skills while creating exciting projects.

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