Defining a ROBOT - Encyclopedia of Robotics

We have been long working on the proper taxonomy to support robotics research. Here is a concise definition to consider:

"A robot is a complex mechatronic system enabled with electronics, sensors, actuators, and software, executing tasks with a certain degree of autonomy. It may be preprogrammed, teleoperated or carrying out computations to make decisions."

Read also: Springer's Encyclopedia of Robotics - Taxonomy and Standards in Robotics by HaideggerT. 

Summary

"Arguably, it is hard to define exactly the term robot, given their various structures, functions, applications and appearances. In the advent of a new robotics era marked by the generation of “robotic natives”, there are several contributing factors that should be observed (Boesl & Liepert 2017). The constellation of a set of powerful technologies will lead to the appearance of new generations of robots, having more services and more overlap with Industry 4.0, big data, rapid prototyping, AR/VR, IoT, simulation, cloud computing and other domains. Moving beyond the traditional ISO definitions, walls between the narrow mechatronics meaning of robotics and the neighboring ICT technologies is completely disappearing. Latest robot generations either in industrial or service domain are depending on computing and telecommunications solutions that are extensively used in general purpose IT. The—conventionally very conservative—robotics community became open to exploit the synergies of fields like computer science, AI and the cognitive mechatronics. Besides the pure technological aspects, we also witness a paradigm shift in the human compatibility of robotics, robot builders are optimizing the cognitive couplings between humans and robots beyond the traditional HRI. As a result, robots evolve from complete isolation to interconnected, human-centric Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), marked by the advancement of radical new technology breakthroughs presented and reviewed hereafter. "

Source: Springer