Chris Boucher was asked to write Robots after another serial fell through. He was chosen as his work on the preceding story The Face of Evil, had been widely appreciated. It was Philip Hinchcliffe who pushed the idea of a "robot story", despite script editor Robert Holmes' opinion that they were dull. Holmes was confident that he could produce a good script for an enclosed space, as the crew were aware the serial would be a studio bound one. Hinchcliffe suggested a setting akin to the machines featured in the 1965 sci-fi novel Dune, and so the sandminers were created.