<P> In the book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", robots were called "mechanical men". A notable character was the Tin Woodman, a man made up of tin who chops trees in the forests of Oz . </P> <P> The term "robot" was first used to denote fictional automata in the 1921 play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek . According to Čapek, the word was created by his brother Josef from the Czech robota, meaning servitude . The play, R.U.R, replaced the popular use of the word "automaton" with the word "robot ." In 1927, Fritz Lang's Metropolis was released; the Maschinenmensch ("machine - human"), a gynoid humanoid robot, also called "Parody", "Futura", "Robotrix", or the "Maria impersonator" (played by German actress Brigitte Helm), was the first robot ever to be depicted on film . In many films, radio and television programs of the 1950s and before, the word "robot" was usually pronounced "robit" even though it was spelled with an O: examples are "The Lonely" episode of the TV series "The Twilight Zone", first aired on November 15, 1959, and the sci - fi radio program "X Minus One". </P> <P> The first humanoid robot was a soldier with a trumpet, made in 1810 by Friedrich Kaufmann in Dresden, Germany . The robot was on display until at least April 30, 1950 . </P> <P> Many robots were constructed before the dawn of computer - controlled servomechanisms, for the public relations purposes of major firms . These were essentially machines that could perform a few stunts, like the automata of the 18th century . In 1928, one of the first humanoid robots was exhibited at the annual exhibition of the Model Engineers Society in London . Invented by W.H. Richards, the robot - named Eric - consisted of an aluminium suit of armour with eleven electromagnets and one motor powered by a 12 - volt power source . The robot could move its hands and head and could be controlled by remote control or voice control . </P>

Where did the idea of robots come from