robot
In plain wordsA machine that senses its surroundings, decides what to do and physically acts, moving itself or handling objects, with some independence from a human operator. Factory arms, robot vacuums and self-driving cars are all robots.
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Machines
A machine that takes in its surroundings through sensors, decides what to do with that information and then changes the physical world through actuatorsactuator, n.: The 'muscle' of a machine: a motor or similar device that turns electrical, hydraulic or air power into movement, such as turning a robot's joint or closing its gripper. — handling objects (manipulationmanipulation, n.: A robot's use of arms, hands or grippers to change the world around it: picking things up, moving, pushing, opening, assembling or using tools.), getting from place to place (locomotionlocomotion, n.: How a robot moves itself from place to place: rolling on wheels, walking on legs, crawling, swimming or flying.) or holding a tool in position — while acting at least partly on its own reading of its state and sensing rather than under moment-to-moment human control. The international robotics vocabulary, ISO 8373:2021, is terser: a 'programmed actuated mechanism with a degree of autonomy to perform locomotion, manipulation or positioning', sensing entering through its definition of autonomy. Robots are classed by application (industrialindustrial robot, n.: A programmable robot arm used in factories for jobs such as welding, painting, assembling and moving parts, traditionally working inside a safety cage. versus service robots), by body (mobilemobile robot, n.: A robot that travels around by itself — on wheels, tracks, legs, propellers or thrusters — such as a robot vacuum, warehouse cart, delivery robot or planetary rover., leggedlegged robot, n.: A robot that walks on legs instead of rolling on wheels, such as a four-legged 'robot dog' or a two-legged humanoid, so it can climb stairs and cross rough ground., humanoidhumanoid robot, n.: A robot built roughly in human shape, with a head, torso, two arms and usually two legs, so that it can work in spaces and with tools designed for people., fixed arm-type manipulators, aerialdrone, n.: An aircraft that carries no one aboard to fly it: a person steers it from the ground, or its own software does. Small camera-carrying quadcopters are the most familiar kind.) and by how they are controlled, from fixed programs and classical controllerscontrol theory, n.: The mathematics of making machines behave as intended by constantly measuring what they are doing and correcting them, as a thermostat, cruise control or self-balancing robot does. to learned policiespolicy, n.: An AI agent's strategy: the rule it follows to pick an action in each situation. Training in reinforcement learning means improving this rule until it earns high rewards. such as vision-language-action modelsvision-language-action model, n.: An AI model that looks through a robot's cameras, reads an instruction such as 'put the cup in the sink', and turns both straight into the robot's movements.. The boundary is conventional: most roboticists count self-driving carsautonomous vehicle, n.: A vehicle, usually a car, truck or shuttle, that can drive itself, sensing the road, deciding what to do and steering, braking and accelerating with no human driving. as robots, while purely remote-controlled devices and single-purpose appliances sit at the margins.
The warehouse runs 400 mobile robots alongside its human pickers.
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Software
A program that performs automated tasks without a physical body, usually shortened to bot: a web crawler (whose access is governed by robots.txtrobots.txt, n.: A small public file in which a website posts its rules for automated visitors, such as search-engine and AI crawlers, listing areas they are asked to stay out of. Obeying it is voluntary.), a 'software robot' in robotic process automation that mimics a clerk's clicks and keystrokes in business applications, or an automated account on social media.
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Fiction and extended uses
An artificial being made to resemble and serve humans, as in early science fiction — the robots of Karel Čapek's play were assembled from synthetic organic matter, not built from metal — and, figuratively, a person who works or behaves mechanically, without feeling or initiative.
Origin
From Czech robota, 'forced labor', the work serfs owed their lords. Karel Čapek introduced the word in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), published in 1920 and first staged in January 1921; he credited his brother, the painter Josef Čapek, with suggesting it. Productions in New York (1922) and London (1923) and Paul Selver's English translation carried it into English. Isaac Asimov's stories later added roboticsrobotics, n.: The science and engineering of building robots and making them work: designing their bodies, sensors and motors, and writing the software that lets them see, plan and move safely. and the Three Laws of RoboticsThree Laws of Robotics, n.: Three rules that science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov built into his fictional robots — do not harm people, obey orders, protect yourself — in stories that mostly show how such simple rules go wrong..
Usage note
Not the same thing as AI: most robots ever built ran fixed programs with little intelligence, and most AI runs with no body at all. The overlap, machines that learn to perceive and act, is called embodied AIembodied AI, n.: AI that has a body, usually a robot and sometimes a simulated character, and learns or acts by sensing and moving in a world rather than only processing text or images. or physical AIphysical AI, n.: AI built to work in the physical world rather than on a screen: the intelligence inside robots, self-driving cars, drones and other machines that must sense real surroundings and move through them.. Calling chatbots or automated accounts 'robots' is common in journalism but avoided by roboticists.
Related
- roboticsrobotics, n.: The science and engineering of building robots and making them work: designing their bodies, sensors and motors, and writing the software that lets them see, plan and move safely.
- industrial robotindustrial robot, n.: A programmable robot arm used in factories for jobs such as welding, painting, assembling and moving parts, traditionally working inside a safety cage.
- mobile robotmobile robot, n.: A robot that travels around by itself — on wheels, tracks, legs, propellers or thrusters — such as a robot vacuum, warehouse cart, delivery robot or planetary rover.
- humanoid robothumanoid robot, n.: A robot built roughly in human shape, with a head, torso, two arms and usually two legs, so that it can work in spaces and with tools designed for people.
- embodied AIembodied AI, n.: AI that has a body, usually a robot and sometimes a simulated character, and learns or acts by sensing and moving in a world rather than only processing text or images.
- physical AIphysical AI, n.: AI built to work in the physical world rather than on a screen: the intelligence inside robots, self-driving cars, drones and other machines that must sense real surroundings and move through them.
- actuatoractuator, n.: The 'muscle' of a machine: a motor or similar device that turns electrical, hydraulic or air power into movement, such as turning a robot's joint or closing its gripper.
- Three Laws of RoboticsThree Laws of Robotics, n.: Three rules that science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov built into his fictional robots — do not harm people, obey orders, protect yourself — in stories that mostly show how such simple rules go wrong.
- AI agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done.
- chatbotchatbot, n.: Software you chat with in ordinary language, by typing or talking, as you would with a person. The newest ones, such as ChatGPT, can answer questions, draft writing and keep long conversations going.
Sources
- Čapek, K. (1920). R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). Prague: Aventinum.
- ISO 8373:2021. Robotics — Vocabulary. International Organization for Standardization. iso.org/standard/75539.html
Defined in law or standards
ISO 8373:2021, Robotics — Vocabulary (entry 'robot')
Mentioned in
humanoid robothumanoid robot, n.: A robot built roughly in human shape, with a head, torso, two arms and usually two legs, so that it can work in spaces and with tools designed for people., physical AIphysical AI, n.: AI built to work in the physical world rather than on a screen: the intelligence inside robots, self-driving cars, drones and other machines that must sense real surroundings and move through them., roboticsrobotics, n.: The science and engineering of building robots and making them work: designing their bodies, sensors and motors, and writing the software that lets them see, plan and move safely., actuatoractuator, n.: The 'muscle' of a machine: a motor or similar device that turns electrical, hydraulic or air power into movement, such as turning a robot's joint or closing its gripper., industrial robotindustrial robot, n.: A programmable robot arm used in factories for jobs such as welding, painting, assembling and moving parts, traditionally working inside a safety cage., mobile robotmobile robot, n.: A robot that travels around by itself — on wheels, tracks, legs, propellers or thrusters — such as a robot vacuum, warehouse cart, delivery robot or planetary rover., Moravec's paradoxMoravec's paradox, n.: The observation that what is hard for people, like chess or algebra, is often easy for computers, while what toddlers do effortlessly, such as seeing, walking and picking things up, is very hard for machines., robot learningrobot learning, n.: Teaching robots skills from data and experience, such as watching demonstrations, practicing by trial and error or training in simulation, instead of programming every movement by hand.