Short answers, pulled from the story.
Karel Čapek introduced the term robot in his play R.U.R. published in 1920. He credited his brother Josef Čapek as the actual originator of the Czech word robota which means forced labor or drudgery.
William Grey Walter created the first electronic autonomous robots with complex behavior at Bristol England between 1948 and 1949. His Burden Neurological Institute team named them Elmer and Elsie often described as tortoises due to shape and slow movement.
George Devol invented the first digitally operated and programmable robot in 1954 ultimately called Unimate. He sold the first Unimate to General Motors in 1960 installed in Trenton New Jersey in 1961.
Rio Tinto Coal Australia expanded its autonomous truck fleet to the world largest consisting of 150 autonomous Komatsu trucks. The company actively used these self-driving dump trucks without human operators in mining operations in Western Australia by 2015.
The Japanese government issued an official report in 2009 through Robot Industry Policy Committee requiring safety systems possibly sets laws akin Asimov Three Laws. This document addressed implications of autonomous decision making regarding military robots and other complex machines.