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The word "robot" comes from Czech noun "robota" meaning labor. It was popularized by Carel Kapek in his 1920 play "RUR" (Rossums Universal Robots).

In the play, robots are artificial beings made from "a material that behaved just the same as living tissue". They eventually replace humans in all kinds of ways. Kapek's robots are modelled on humans but are "simplified" to fulfill only their necessary functions. They are mechanically superior to humans but they are not designed for any specific task - they learn those tasks in much the same way humans do.

So what makes a robot different from other machines is that it is humanoid, it is capable of learning, and it performs labor as a direct replacement for a human being - and not necessarily just physical labor - in RUR they are described as making ideal university lecturers!

A robot has to to be generally humanoid in shape, size and appearance to do its job. For example, a robot designed to drive a car would have to have feet and hands like a human to use the controls, and also be generally human-size and human-shape to fit in the car in the first place. Also, physical constraints tend to dictate that robots be approximately human in size. In RUR, Capek describes how early robots were made 4 metres tall, but that they broke too easily - i.e. their human-like artificial tissue and body plan simply couldn't support a structure that large.

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