List of fictional robots

Theatre

• The word "robot" comes from Karel Capek's play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) [written 1920; first performed 1921; performed in New York 1922; English edition published 1923]. In the play, the word refers to artificially created life forms. [1]

Literature

• Maidens made of gold, Bronze giant Talos, in The Iliad by Homer (circa 800 BC)
• The woman forged out of gold in The Kalevala
• The legend of the Golem, an animated man of clay, mentioned in the Talmud.
• A mechanical man powered by steam in Edward S. Ellis' Steam Man of the Prairies (1865)
• A mechanical man run by electricity in Luis Senarens' Frank Reade and his Electric Man (1885)
• A robot chess-player in Moxon's Master by Ambrose Bierce
• The "Professor Jameson" series by Neil R. Jones (early 1930s) featured human and alien minds preserved in robot bodies. Reprinted in five Ace paperbacks in the late 1960s: The Planet of the Double Sun, The Sunless World, Space War, Twin Worlds and Doomsday on Ajiat
• The Martian robot in The Lost Machine by John Wyndham (1932)
• Human cyborgs in Revolt of the Pedestrians by David H. Keller (1932)
• Robot surgeon in "Rex" by Harl Vincent (1934)
• Helen O'Loy, from the story of the same title by Lester del Rey (1938)
• Adam Link of I, Robot by Eando Binder (1938)
• Robots discover their "roots" in Robots Return by Robert Moore Williams (1938).
• Robot as murder witness in True Confession by F. Orlin Tremaine (1939)
• Robots by Isaac Asimov:
  • Robbie, Speedy, Cutie, and others, from the stories in I, Robot (1940 - 1950) (not to be confused with the Binder short story of the same title)
  • L-76, Z-1, Z-2, Z-3, Emma-2, Brackenridge, Tony, Lenny, Ez-27 and others, from the stories in The Rest of the Robots 1964
  • R. Daneel Olivaw, from The Caves of Steel (1954) and subsequent novels
  • R. Giskard, from The Robots of Dawn and subsequent novels
  • Andrew Martin, from The Bicentennial Man (1976) (later made into a film)
  • Norby, in a series of books for children co-written with Janet Asimov
• The Iron Man, in the book by Ted Hughes (1968)
• The masculinist plot to replace women with perfect looking, obedient robot replicas -- The Stepford Wives (1972) by Ira Levin
• Gort, in Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates
• Zane Gort, a robot novelist, of The Silver Eggheads by Fritz Leiber
• The Humanoids, from a series by Jack Williamson
• Androids, fully organic in nature -- the products of genetic engineering -- and so human-like that they can only be distinguished by psychological tests; some of them don't even know that they're not human. -- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968) by Philip K. Dick
• Doraemon in a manga by Fujiko Fujio
• Marilyn, named after Marilyn Monroe, in Kazuo Umezu's 1982 manga My name is Shingo
• The Electric Grandmother in the short story of the same name, from I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury

Film

• The false Maria, in Metropolis (1927)
• Gort, in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (film version of Farewell to the Master)
• Robby, in Forbidden Planet (1956)
• The all-robot police force in THX-1138 (1971)
• The drones Huey, Duey, and Louie, in Silent Running (1972). Notable as the first movie in which non-anthropomorphic robots were made mobile by manning them with amputees.
• The robots in Sleeper (1973)
• The robotic gunfighters in Westworld (1973)
• C-3PO, R2-D2 and the droid army, in Star Wars (1977) and subsequent films
• V.I.N.C.E.N.T, B.O.B, Maximillian and the androids made out of humans -- The Black Hole (1979)
• Ash in Alien (1979), Bishop in Aliens, and Annalee in
• Replicants -- Blade Runner (1982) (the film version of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
• The robot assassin in The Terminator (1984) and sequels
• The little boy Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform in D.A.R.Y.L.
• Johnny 5 in Short Circuit (1986) and its sequel, Short Circuit 2
• The evil robotic doubles in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)
• The Iron Giant (1999) (film version of The Iron Man)
• Bicentennial Man (1999) -- based on a short story by Isaac Asimov
• many robots, including David, the lead character, in Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001); based on the "Supertoys" of Brian Aldiss' short story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long[2].

Television

• Astro Boy from Astro Boy (1960s - )
• "Robot" in Lost in Space (1960s)
• Rosie the Maid in The Jetsons (1960s)
• "Rhoda Miller" in My Living Doll (1964)
• K-9, the Movellans, and many more, in Doctor Who (1963-1989)
• Hymie the Robot in the comedy series Get Smart (1965 - 1970)
• Cylons -- Battlestar Galactica (1978-1980) (In the novelizations, Cylons were simply humanoid aliens wearing mechanical armor.)
• Twiki and Dr. Forrester -- Buck Rogers (1979)
• Marvin the Paranoid Android -- (1978--1981) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Originally a radio series, then a book and a TV series).
• Data, Lore, and Lal (Data's daughter) -- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
• Tom Servo, Crow, Gypsy and Cambot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
• Vicki the little girl robot in Small Wonder
• The cyborg teenager in Not Quite Human and its sequels
• Bender the Robot in the animated series Futurama (1999)
• 790 the sarcastic and perverse body-less robot head of Lexx.
• KITT, the Knight Industries Two Thousand from Knight Rider, is a non-humanoid robot in the form of a car.
• XR, the indestructable, self healing sidekick robot in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Also XL, the proto-version of XR.
• The tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which are eventually decomissioned once their AIs start showing too many signs of self-awareness
• Thunderclese from The Brak Show
• Gir from Invader Zim
• Kryten from Red Dwarf

Related articles

• Artificial intelligence
• Science fiction
• List of fictional computers
• Cyborgs in fiction

Referenced By