What is robot?

Question

What is robot?

Answer 1

Some people use the concept of android and robot interchangeably.  However in the most generic (etymological not necessarily engineering) sense a robot is any mechanical device capable of performing any task either automatically or by remote control.  Obviously this accounts for an incredibly wide range of sophistication.

There is no consensus among engineers but the following factors/combination of factors are usually considered among others:

1] whether it is 'natural' i.e. artificially created

2] whether it can sense its environment, and manipulate or interact with things in it

3] whether it has some ability to make choices based on the environment, often using automatic control or a preprogrammed sequence

4] whether is programmable

5] whether it moves with one or more axes of rotation or translation makes dexterous coordinated movements appears to have intent or agency

Some say it must meet all of these conditions.  Some say it must meet some.  Some say it must meet one.  Some have a different set of conditions altogether.  The answer therefore is ultimately subjective.  Maybe I just should have stated I can't answer your question.