A robot is a machine that is built to assist us with our daily tasks and to make our lives easier, the word robot comes from the Czech word robotnick which literally means forced labour.

Since the beginning of time, the concept of robots have been with us in some form or the other, history tells us that the ancient civilizations used robotic devices such as clocks that can tell the time using water and a bird made from wood that was powered by steam.

The rise of the machines when devices were built to help us with our daily lives began during the 17th century and the industrial revolution speeded up the process with rapid progress being made in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering.

During this time, the use of robots became common as the industries found that the machines were much more useful and helped in achieving better results in a shorter period of time as compared to the human workforce.

Despite the use of robots for centuries, real change came during the twentieth century due to the world wars and the determination by the colonial powers to keep their control and rule over the colonies.

Interestingly, there was a story written a hundred years ago by the Czech writer Karel Capek called Rossums Universal Robots that dealt with the robots getting too intelligent for their own good and killing the very people who made them from nothing.

Then more than half a century ago, Isaac Asimov the American author defined what is known as the three laws that we follow with regards to how we deal with robots:

1. A robot is a machine that cannot be allowed to cause injury or allow a human being to be put in danger under any circumstances.
2. It is the duty of a robot to follow instructions that is given to them with the exception of situations where the life of a human being is threatened and they could lose their lives.
3. In the event that a robot could be damaged or destroyed by hostile conditions, it needs to save itself and prevent anything that it would cause it to malfunction.

Furthermore, we can distinguish between robots that were made before and after the invention of the computer. Here are some of the ways in which they differ:

A) Most of the earlier robots were simple in design and were suitable for basic tasks where they had to move their hands and their movements were remote controlled such as children's toys.

B) Robots were designed to respond to voice commands, they were bulky in size and had the ability to distinguish between colours.

C) The automobile industry was known for using robots for their assembly lines, this represented a major shift because many people were afraid of losing their jobs and the robots were specifically built for industrial purposes.

D) The invention of the computer and the internet has led to further advancements in the use of robots, their presence can be found everywhere, we have artificial intelligence, autonomous cars, robot dogs and even humanoid robots such as Sophia.

Robots have come a long way, they are found in all aspects of our life whether it is business, military or entertainment industry, it can be truly called the rise of the machines.