The first mention anywhere of the word Robot was in his play in 1921 by Karel Capek (a czech playwright) The play was called R.U.R. {Rossums Universal Robots} and was about a world in which robots started by helping mankind and ended up causing misery because of lack of jobs etc.  A view which some people might agree with today.

Asimov created the four laws of robot behavior, cyber laws all robots had to obey and a fundamental part of positronic robotic engineering. The Isaac Asimov FAQ states, "Asimov claimed that the laws were originated by John W. Campbell in a conversation they had on December 23, 1940. Campbell in turn maintained that he picked them out of Asimov's stories and discussions, and that his role was merely to state them explicitly. The first story to explicitly state the three laws was "Runaround", which appeared in the March 1942 issue of "Astounding Science Fiction". Unlike the Three Laws, however, the Zeroth Law is not a fundamental part of positronic robotic engineering, is not part of all positronic robots, and, in fact, requires a very sophisticated robot to even accept it."

Law Zeroth: A robot may not injure humanity, or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
Law One: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate a higher order law.
Law Two: A robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher order law.
Law Three: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher order law.
-Isaac Asimov

(Robot the word is actual of czech origin robota or robotnik and means a serf, slave or forced labourer)

Joseph Engelberger, a pioneer in industrial robotics, once remarked: "I can't define a robot, but I know one when I see one.In 1950 Joseph F Engelberger who was born in New York in 1925, developed the first industrial robot in the USA. He is known as a pioneer on the subject having been involved in many fields including  Industry, Health care and Space exploration.

With his partner (Devol) they founded Unimation Inc. in 1956. (Devol had the patents) In 1962 they installed the first robots at General Motors.

The Japaese invested heavily in replacing people with robots seeing the sense in releasing men

from boring monotinous tasks for safety and production reasons.

Engelbergers books" Robotics in Practice" and" Robotics in Service" are very informative.