The Caves of Steel
The template SF-mystery hybrid and origin of fiction's first great human/robot buddy partnership; Baley and Daneel's successors staff half of modern SF television.
Series Guide
Robot series
by Isaac Asimov
Asimov's Three Laws universe, from the positronic puzzle stories of I, Robot to the Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw detective novels that eventually dovetail with Foundation.
In the Guide
I, Robot
Established the Three Laws, science fiction's most influential ethical framework for machines, and replaced the Frankenstein-robot with the engineering problem. Foundational, in every sense.