Android
Ameca, an android developed by Engineered Arts. [Willy Jackson, CC BY-SA 4.0]
Androids, rarely called mechanoids, are robots that physically resemble humans.
The word android is sometimes used to mean robots with masculine characteristics, with gynoid used to refer to those with feminine characteristics, however, this distinction is not common outside of science fiction media.
Whilst rarely used, the term androgynoid may refer to robots with both masculine and feminine characteristics.
History
The earliest use of the word android appears to have originated in 1728 encyclopedia Cyclopædia by Ephraim Chambers (then called “androides”), which was in reference to a human-looking automaton supposedly created by St. Albertus Magnus[1].
By the late 1700s, androids started to appear in exhibits for display purposes and by 1863, the word android would appear in US patents referring to human-looking automaton toys.[2] The word gynoid originated from a 1979 editorial written by Isaac Asimov[3].
With the introduction of Karel Čapek’s famous play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), the word ‘robot’ was introduced, which was often used interchangeably with android. Though, robot was used more to refer to all mechanical beings, not just those resembling humans.[4]
Authors of stories have often used the term android in more diverse ways, such as in the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, where the artificially-created humans called “Replicants” are used as slaves. These Replicants have no mechanical components, but are called androids nonetheless.
In popular culture
In real life
Development of human-like robots have been a long-standing goal of many robotics companies.
The Japanese company Honda began development of self-regulating bipedal robots in 1986, with their first ‘humanoid’ model, the P1, being unveiled in 1993. They released the first version of ASIMO, potentially the most well known real world android.
Other real-world androids include Miim (HRP-4C), developed by AIST, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, and NASA’s Valkyrie (R5).
In media
Androids are one of the most widespread ways that robots are depicted in media, due to the ease of casting humans in the role.
Examples of androids in live-action media include Data in the Star Trek franchise, C3-PO in the Star Wars franchise, and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Using computer-generated imagery to depict androids with less human-like appearances is also common, such as Sonny in 2004’s I, Robot and the eponymous CHAPPiE in CHAPPiE.
Animated androids include Jenny Wakeman in My Life as a Teenage Robot, Robot in Robot Dreams, and Bender Rodriguez in Futurama.
Androids appearing in literature include Andrew Martin in Isaac Asimov’s The Bicentennial Man, Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and Murderbot/SecUnit in The Murderbot Diaries series of novels.
Some androids, such as the T-800 of the Terminator franchise, include organic components as enhancements to their bodies, however they do not require these components to work, so may still be considered true androids.
A common trope of androids in media involves them desiring to become more human, such as Data and Andrew. These characters may temporarily or pemanently become cyborgs in the pursuit of becoming more human-like.
In the robotkin community
Many robotkin individuals perceive themselves as androids, as it is easier to reconcile a human body plan with that of an android.