Robot
Walter stressed the importance of using purely analogue electronics to simulate brain processes at a time when his contemporaries such as Alan Turing and John von Neumann were all turning towards a view of mental processes in terms of digital computation. His work inspired subsequent generations of robotics researchers such as Rodney Brooks, Hans Moravec and Mark Tilden. Modern incarnations of Walter's "turtles" may be found in the form of BEAM robotics.
The first digitally operated and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and was ultimately called the Unimate. This ultimately laid the foundations of the modern robotics industry. Devol sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960, and it was installed in 1961 in a plant in Trenton, New Jersey to lift hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stack them. Devol's patent for the first digitally operated programmable robotic arm represents the foundation of the modern robotics industry.
Karel Čapek
Karel Čapek introduced and made popular the frequently used international word "robot", which first appeared in his play "R.U.R." in 1920. While it is frequently thought that he was the originator of the word, he wrote a short letter in reference to an article in the "Oxford English Dictionary" etymology in which he named his brother, painter and writer Josef Čapek, as its actual inventor. In an article in the Czech journal "Lidové noviny" in 1933, he also explained that he had originally wanted to call the creatures "laboři" (from Latin "labor", work). However, he did not like the word, seeing it as too artificial, and sought advice from his brother Josef, who suggested "roboti" ("robots" in English).