Since the 1800's western visions of the future frequently feature space travel and robots; how did previous centuries imagine the future? Were there concepts of utopia's, space travel and robots? If not what did they imagine and when did 'modern futurology' begin?

There's always room for more discussion! (On this topic...please!) We do, however, actually have a section of the FAQ that explores just those questions!

You might be specifically interested in:

What did ancient Romans think about the future?
Before 1700, is there any literature with a definite setting in the future? What did they think the future would look like?
The birth of futurology - when did people start to think, "Wow! This invention will change the world!" and write about what would happen?

I also just answered a related question about space travel, if you're interested.