He was just a human, period, a necessary cog in a team of robots.

(Transmog robot in 'Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak)

There was a law that said no robot or no group of robots could be assigned a task without human supervision, but that was not the whole of it. It was, rather, something innate in the robot makeup, not built into them, but something that was there and always might be there — the ever-present link between the robot and his human.

('Installment Plan' by Clifford Simak)

Sent out alone, a robot team would blunder and bog down, would in the end become unstuck entirely — would wind up worse than useless. With a human accompanying them, there was almost no end to their initiative and their capability.

It might, he thought, be their need of leadership, although in very truth the human member of the team sometimes showed little of that. It might be the necessity for some symbol of authority and yet, aside from their respect and consideration for their human, the robots actually bowed to no authority.