(1) In the late 1700s, a performer-cum-scientist in the court of Maria Theresa displayed a wooden automaton seated at a gear-filled cabinet.

(2) In computer science, an automaton is an abstract machine that can serve as a model of computation.

(3) Mathematician Alan M. Turing was one of the first to propose the idea of a finite automaton as a universal mathematics machine.

(4) The story went that Descartes was so struck with grief that he created an automaton , a mechanical doll, built exactly identical to his dead daughter.

(5) She went about her preparations like an automaton

(6) Like an automaton, she walked to the door

(7) Technology is here to stay, we need to use it to our advantage, bearing in mind at all times that the athlete is a human being and not a machine or an automaton .

(8) The camera pans right to left, over the mechanical cymbals, et cetera, on to the automaton playing the drums.

(9) This reproduction does not simulate the jerky movements of a sci-fi automaton , however, but the strange instruments of a science fiction soundtrack.

(10) He goes through the mechanics of putting in the milk concentrate powder like an automaton , taking insane amounts of care not to spill a single drop of the powder from the bottles.

(11) Originally, the challenge was to design an automaton that could walk unassisted.

(12) It seems to escape most people that we docs are actually human beings too, not automatons .

(13) With 842 lots, the sale will be in two parts: fine toys, biscuit tins and toy soldiers next Tuesday; and mechanical music, automata , dolls and doll's houses on October 30.

(14) Non-human animals have only bodies and are essentially automata or biological robots which behave according to their internal biological/mechanical makeup.

(15) They are not the unemotional automatons of science fiction myth.

(16) He manages to create a believable world of automatons and clockwork mechanisms against a backdrop of the real world.

(17) Instead, they seem to be purely creatures of the plot, automatons carrying out their instructions in order to keep the rest of the machinery moving.

(18) A world of automata - of creatures that worked like machines - would hardly be worth creating.

(19) Paris became a center for high-quality hand-crafted automata and porcelain dolls in the 19th century.

(20) I notice that the checkout girls in the supermarket look for eye contact with every customer, as they too need to be seen and accepted as human beings, not automatons .