robot (n.)
A robot is a machine that can carry out tasks automatically.
The word entered international use through Karel Čapek’s 1920 play R.U.R., where it named artificial workers. Čapek later credited his brother Josef with suggesting the word.12
Josef drew it from Czech robota, a word connected with forced labour, serf labour, or hard work. The labour was already in the name before the modern machine existed.12
The factory uses robots for welding.