Robots created by a university man at Aston originally (8)
I believe the answer is:
automata
'robots' is the definition.
('automaton' can be a synonym of 'robot')
'a university man at aston originally' is the wordplay.
'university' becomes 'u' (abbreviation for university).
'man' becomes 'tom' ().
'originally' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'aston' is 'a'.
'a'+'u'+'tom'+'at'+'a'='AUTOMATA'
'created by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for automata that I've seen before include "Mechanical humans" , "group of robots?" , "set of robots" , "They don't think" , "Mechanical figures" .)