The Three Laws of Robotics are three rules, written by Isaac Asimov. Isaac Asimov wrote many stories with robots in them. In most of his stories, the robots must obey the laws.

The first mention of the laws is in Asimov's short story Runaround (written in 1942).

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, by failing to act, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where carrying out those orders would break the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as the things it does to protect itself do not break the First or Second Law.

Later, Asimov added the Zeroth Law: "A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm"; the rest of the laws are modified sequentially to acknowledge this.