From Metropolis to Avengers: Age of Ultron, robots are such a staple of movie-going that it's easy to forget they haven't always been around. The idea of automated machines doing work for us has ...

KYOTO, Japan — The robot appeared in the hotel hallway as if out of nowhere, R2D2-sized, silently rolling, on a mission of undetermined nature from its robot overlords. A group of us Yankee travelers ...