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a plural of automaton.
a mechanical figure or contrivance constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot.
a person or animal that acts in a monotonous, routine manner, without active intelligence.
something capable of acting automatically or without an external motive force.
historical examples

there they stood, automata, representatives of the society which streamed past them.
democracy an american novel henry adams

you think, too, then, that were all in such a rut; living chinese lives; automata?
adrienne toner anne douglas sedgwick

mr. schiller’s reply to this line of criticism is the familiar one that it reduces human beings to automata.
a grammar of freethought chapman cohen

that machines or automata could invent, is a thing not easily explicable.
the insect jules michelet

the automata chucked sixteen hundred pounds to the klosking, and six hundred pounds to the other lady.
the woman-hater charles reade

and one would like to know what our conviction that we are not automata has to do with it.
a grammar of freethought chapman cohen

the actors in this strange drama had replaced the automata in the box again, closing its lid.
traditions of lancashire, volume 2 (of 2) john roby

it is probable that he made the automata which i saw in russia.
a history of inventions, discoveries, and origins, volume ii (of 2) johann beckman

it is proving too much to show that adaptation might equally well have arisen in automata.
a grammar of freethought chapman cohen

he constructed various machines and automata, among the most celebrated of which was his flying pigeon.
the new gresham encyclopedia. vol. 1 part 2 various

noun
a plural of automaton
noun (pl) -tons, -ta (-tə)
a mechanical device operating under its own hidden power; robot
a person who acts mechanically or leads a routine monotonous life
n.

1610s, from latin automaton (suetonius), from greek automaton, neuter of automatos “self-acting,” from autos “self” (see auto-) + matos “thinking, animated, willing,” from pie -mn-to-, from root -men- “to think” (see mind (n.)).

automaton