And this is even more true when considering elements in the formation of a robot that need to be handled before the AI: physics, metallurgy, engineering, computer hardware design, etc.

Without theory--good, workably-correct theory--the search space for innovations is just too large. The more correct the theory, the less space has to be searched for solution concepts. If you're going to build a rocket, you sure as hell better understand Newton's laws. But things will go much smoother if you also know some chemistry, some material science, and some computer science.

For a solid example of theory taking previous experimental data and massively narrowing the search space, see RAND's first report on the feasibility of satellites here.