Karl Rossum was head of Cybertron and the creator of the supercomputer H.A.R.D.A.C.. The name was taken from the play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots), its author Karel Čapek is credited with coining the word "robot" in 1921. Contrary to some fan belief, his name was not a corruption of crime boss Carl Grissom, although the names are strikingly similar.