robot

Referencing the origin of the name of the 4chan imageboard /r9k/ (created in 2008), so-called because it implements the ROBOT9000 algorithm by Randall Munroe to prevent the reposting of content.
Possibly overlapping with the sense of robot (“a person who does not seem to have any emotions”), alluding to autism, due to the prevalence of personal stories describing awkward or embarrassing situations on the board.

One anonymous message addressed to "fellow robots" hoped readers would have "an enjoyable Elliot Rodger day"—a reference to the shooter who killed six near a Santa Barbara university last year.

2015 October 1, David Kravets, “Ominous messages left on 4chan day before Oregon college killings [Updated]”, in Ars Technica, archived from the original on 2022-12-06:

Posters on the board are locked in an ongoing debate about who can be one of them— a "robot." Can white guys be robots, despite their privilege? Can black guys? Women love them! It goes on and on. Only one rule really seems to be agreed upon: "If you have no friends and no gf you are a robot."

2015 October 3, Jay Hathaway, “How 4chan Trolled Two of Its Friends by Framing Them for the Oregon Mass Shooting”, in Gawker, archived from the original on 2022-11-20:

It continued: "On October 5, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. CT, a fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia. His cries will be heard, his victims will cower in fear, and the strength of the Union will decay a little more."

2015 October 5, Justin Wm. Moyer, anonymous quotee, “Philadelphia colleges on alert after 4chan post threatens violence Monday”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-06-24:

As /r9k/ robots posted and reposted Pepes to playfully mock their status as grotesque outsiders whose very visage was disturbing to "normies," they ushered in a renaissance of frogs that soon appealed to all the netizens who every year had a little more in common with withdrawn, internet-soaked hikikomori.

2019, Dale Beran, It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office, New York, N.Y.: All Points Books, →ISBN:

(Internet slang, 4chan slang) A habitual poster on the /r9k/ board on 4chan; a member of the /r9k/ community.


humanoid

From human (from Latin hūmānus m (“of or belonging to a man, human, humane”, adjective)) + -oid.

suffix

Lowering prices for humanoids would mark a major step to their eventual commercialization and wider adoption.

2025 March 25, John Liu, “Elon Musk thinks robots are a $10 trillion business. He’s got some competition from China”, in CNN:

A being having the appearance or characteristics of a human.

humanoid

a being having the appearance or characteristics of a human


waldo

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-waldo.wav

From the Robert A. Heinlein story Waldo, published in Astounding in 1940, derived from the name of the eponymous protagonist, Waldo F. Jones, who invented remote manipulators to overcome his own myasthenia gravis.

Waldo flexed and extended his fingers gently; the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.


roboticist

Coined by Isaac Asimov in 1940. robot + -ic + -ist. Coined in his short story "Robbie" (initially published under the title "Strange Playfellow").

Johnson is an expert Roboticist.

1940 September, Isaac Asimov, “Strange Playfellow”, in Super Science Stories, volume 1, number 4, page 70:

One who conceptualizes, designs, builds, programs, and experiments with robots.


robotic

en-adj

robotic (comparative more robotic, superlative most robotic)

more robotic (comparative)
most robotic (superlative)

/ɹəʊˈbɒt.ɪk/

[ɹoʊˈbɑ.ɾɪk]

/ɹəʉˈbɔt.ɪk/

[ɹəʉˈbɔɾ.ɪk]

From robot + -ic. Coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1941 in his short story Liar!.

coin

You'd cut your own nose off before you'd let me get the credit for solving robotic telepathy.

1941 May, Isaac Asimov, “Liar!”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 27, number 3, page 50:

In Vice President Al Gore's campaign to change his robotic image, nothing may have helped more than the big smooch.

2000 August 20, Caryn James, “The Nation; When a Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 2014-10-26:

President Donald Trump’s presidential memorandum ordering an investigation of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and his use of the autopen […] is also nonsensical fan service, amplifying addled MAGA conspiracy theories that contend, with a straight face, that Biden was really a robotic clone.

2025 June 7, Paul Rosenzweig, “The Biden Investigation Is a Path to Even Greater Lawlessness”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 2025-06-07:

Of, relating to, or resembling a robot; mechanical, lacking emotion or personality, etc.


robotics

[ɹəʉˈbɔɾ.ɪks]

Coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1941 from robot + -ics by comparison to "physics ... hydraulics, celestial mechanics, and so on" in his short story Liar!.

There's irony in three of the greatest experts in robotics in the world falling into the same elementary trap, isn't there?

1941 May, Isaac Asimov, “Liar!”, in Astounding Science-Fiction, volume 27, number 3, page 53:

While it may take another five to 10 years for humanoid robots to make a real societal impact, they could eventually become the next widely adopted consumer electronics, according to Xi Ning, chair professor of robotics and automation at the University of Hong Kong.

The science and technology of robots, their design, manufacture, and application


animatronics

/ˌænɪməˈtɹɒnɪks/

Blend of animation + electronics, from the Disney trademark "Audio-Animatronics".

Claim that Armitage was not a real rat but an animatronics one that she had made in Science class.

2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

A form of robotics used to create robots that produce preset moves and prerecorded sounds.

ShowBiz Pizza Place
animatronics
the Rock-afire Explosion


nanobot

(nanotechnology, robotics) A very small autonomous robot, typically the size of a biological cell, designed to work alone or in very large numbers to achieve some task.


grey goo

Coined by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation.

"Our first priority has to be quarantining Xinchub's body, and examining any Yomingians who may have handled it. I don't think we're headed for a grey-goo scenario here, but we'd all feel really bad if the local biosphere got consumed by nanobots after we left."

2007 August 24, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 2024-05-11:

[…]Through this, they learn more, and manage to reverse-engineer the ion drives of the drone, allowing them to move the station very rapidly towards Earth. On their way, they manage to send signals to multiple Foundation facilities, overriding them and using their fabrication plants to make new nanomachines. At this rate, it won't be long before there's a good old-fashioned grey-goo scenario, and humanity and the Earth are similarly consumed.

2023 October 22, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-7759 - T is for "Transmission"” (14:43 from the start), in The Exploring Series, retrieved 2024-05-15:

A hypothetical end-of-the-world event involving nanotechnology, in which out-of-control self-replicating nanobots consume all life on Earth (or another planet or moon).


IAD

en-noun

IAD (countable and uncountable, plural IADs)


nanite

I had the nanites install the brackets, then climbed up there with the panels, placed them on the brackets, and had the nanites secure them.

2017, Stephanie C. Fox, New World Order Underwater, page 76:

Disperse into a cloud of nanites.

2021 August 11, Thomas Happ, Axiom Verge 2, Nintendo Switch, description for Tilhar

"Anyway," their guide continued, "he didn't know the first thing about tech. Pushed the team hard. We couldn't get a chemical solution that worked right, but nanites showed real promise."
"You're joking." Quinn didn't even try to keep the horror from her voice.
"Memory-altering nanite clouds?" Tonya growled. "What did they call this, Project Grey Goo? That's wildly irresponsible."

2023 June 25, HarryBlank, “Transposthumousism”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-12-18:

“A nanite cluster has infested the resort, consuming metal to self-replicate. Starfleet has ordered us to humanely capture and study the microscopic robots.”

2024 October 31, Stephanie Amante-Ritter, “The Best Exotic Nanite Hotel” (0:48 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 5, episode 3, spoken by Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis):


nanorobotics

The science and technology of designing and manufacturing nanoscale machines, especially robotic machines.

nanorobotique

the science and technology of designing and manufacturing nanoscale machines, especially robotic machines


humaniform

(science fiction, robotics) A robot resembling a human.


workspace

(robotics) The set of points that can be reached by the end-effector of a robotic manipulator.


robo-

From robot (borrowed from Czech and Slovak robota.)


affordance

From afford + -ance; coined in 1977 by psychologist James J. Gibson, and adopted in 1988 by Donald Norman in the context of human-machine interaction.

So an affordance cannot be measured as we measure in physics.

1979, James Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Theory of Affordances (section 8):

(psychology, philosophy, robotics) Anything that is provided or furnished by an environment to an organism dwelling within it.


chatbot

chatbots (plural)
chat bot (alternative)

From chat + -bot, from earlier chatterbot.

The chatbot was quite simple yet informative.

To deal with a large number of typical queries, “chatbots” technology should be considered. A chatbot can be defined as an intelligent evolution of email. The chatbot categorizes messages on the fly and provides answers to questions accordingly. As such, it can be used as a customer support tool.

2000, Handbook on Electronic Commerce, Springer, →ISBN, page 59:

Wolfram Alpha researcher and chatbot author Robert Lockhart describes the chatbot community as being split between two competing approaches, what he calls “pure semantics” and “pure empiricism.”

2012, Brian Christian, The Most Human Human […] , Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 29:

Chatbot technology, of course, dates back to Weizenbaum’s early experiments with his Eliza program.

2015, John Markoff, Machines of Loving Grace […] , New York: Ecco Press, →ISBN, page 221:

Mr. Aumann confronted his student over whether he had written the essay himself. The student confessed to using ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers information, explains concepts and generates ideas in simple sentences — and, in this case, had written the paper.

2023 January 16, Kalley Huang, “Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Generative AI won’t be the end of employment, we are told, only “boring work” – with chatbots helpfully doing all the soul-destroying, repetitive tasks and humans merely supervising them.

2023 May 8, Naomi Klein, “AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Before ChatGPT distorted Eugene Torres’s sense of reality and almost killed him, he said, the artificial intelligence chatbot had been a helpful, timesaving tool.

2025 June 13, Kashmir Hill, “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

artificial intelligence
artificial intelligence

(Internet, artificial intelligence) A computer program that holds conversations through a chat room.


mecha

From Japanese メカ (meka), from an abbreviation of the English mechanical.

Having deprived her of both her mecha and her lover, Masato looks set for a nasty end, but Miku arrives to save him.

1997, Helen McCarthy, The anime movie guide:

A transformation occurs when a mecha character, vehicle, or weapon unfolds and reassembles itself in a totally new form.

2002, Christopher Hart, Anime mania: how to draw characters for Japanese animation:

Porco Rosso evinces a deep fascination with mechanical objects of all sorts but it is by no means a mecha movie...

2006, Dani Cavallaro, The animé art of Hayao Miyazaki:

Each week the good guys fight the bad guys and vanquish them in a mecha battle, only to have the bad guys reappear intact the following week.

2007, Frenchy Lunning, Mechademia 2: Networks of Desire:

[…] to be a “lifter”—to pilot a mecha that can also transform into an air board […]

2007, Robin E. Brenner, Understanding manga and anime, page 170:

In this section, I show you mechas that are large enough to be piloted by humans from the inside. Although most of them are designed for combat, some function as transportation or construction mechas.

2011, Kensuke Okabayashi, Manga For Dummies, page 275:

(anime, manga) A large armoured robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside.


uncanny valley

Calque of Japanese 不気味の谷 (bukimi no tani), from 不気味 (bukimi, “eerie, uncanny”, of Middle Chinese origin, literally “bad taste and smell”) + の (no, noun modifier particle) + 谷 (tani, “valley”). First used in 1970 by roboticist Masahiro Mori.

calque

So in this case, the appearance is quite human like, but the familiarity is negative. This is the uncanny valley.

1970, Masahiro Mori, “The Uncanny Valley”, in Energy, volume 7, number 4, pages 33–35:

However, when the robot is so similar that it may be momentarily mistaken for real, the transition has a local minimum characterized by a sudden decrease of familiarity, the "uncanny valley"—a dip of frustration due to unmet expectations.

2006, Sebastiano Bagnara, Gillian Crampton Smith, Theories and Practice in Interaction Design:

Almost human in appearance, yet not quite, the characters in 3-D computer animations are more disturbing than overt caricatures. The realm these creatures occupy is called the uncanny valley […].

2007, Jonathon Keats, Control + Alt + Delete: A Dictionary of Cyberslang:

More unusual is perhaps the appropriation of a psychoanalytical theory to robotics–which is, in effect, what the uncanny valley aims to do. Mori's own descriptions of the uncanny follow a similar pattern to Freud's, where he indicates the kinds of events, states, processes or objects that might provoke the uncanny valley, particularly the theme of the dead.

2015, Kathleen Richardson, An Anthropology of Robots and AI, Routledge, →ISBN:

There’s an uncanny valley effect occurring: Your friends look more like brands, and brands look more like your friends, so it’s increasingly hard to tell which is which. And that’s exactly what businesses want.

2016 September 22, Kyle Chayka, “Instagram's Creepy New Ads Look Like Posts From Your Friends”, in The Atlantic:

(robotics, psychology) A range of appearances, mannerisms, or behaviors of a humanoid figure that are subtly different from a human and thereby cause feelings of discomfort, such as fear or revulsion.

وَادٍ غَرِيب

subtle differences from human behavior that may cause negative reactions


mechanoid

Originally he'd entered the Game to rescue the others. He was a sanitation Mechanoid, programmed to clean, and, in theory, should have been immune to the Game's lure. But he wasn't.

(science fiction) A robot that is designed to look and act like a human.


sexbot

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sexbot.wav

A lifelike love doll integrated with robotics to simulate human body movements and intelligence.


RHU

radioisotope heater unit
radioisotope heater unit#English

(space science, robotics) Initialism of radioisotope heater unit, a device that generates heat from the natural decay of radioactive material.


teleoperator

One who operates a robot, etc. remotely.


work envelope

(robotics) The area which a robot, or any part of one, can reach and can operate within.


killbot

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-killbot.wav

(especially science fiction) A robot designed to kill; a robotic assassin.


AUV

autonomous underwater vehicle
w:autonomous underwater vehicle

(nautical, robotics) Initialism of autonomous underwater vehicle.


self-right

en-verb

self-right (third-person singular simple present self-rights, present participle self-righting, simple past and past participle self-righted)

self-rights (present singular third-person)
self-righting (participle present)
self-righted (participle past)
self-righted (past)

Back-formation from self-righting, equivalent to self- + right.

(chiefly robotics or nautical) To make oneself upright.


forebeam

The joints in the kinematic chain of a robot between the forebeam and end-effector are referred to as the wrist.

2010, Reza N. Jazar, Theory of Applied Robotics: Kinematics, Dynamics, and Control, page 5:

(robotics) The support section of a robot arm that goes from the main body of the robot to the gripper.


telefactor

A remote manipulation system in which a slave device mimics the motions of a master device manipulated directly by the operator.


telesurgery

en-noun

telesurgery (countable and uncountable, plural telesurgeries)

(medicine, robotics) Surgery performed by robotic equipment which is monitored and controlled from a remote site.


remote surgery

remote surgery (countable and uncountable, plural remote surgeries)

(medicine, robotics) Synonym of telesurgery.


robotkind

Robots collectively, regarded as a species.


GROVER

(robotics, NASA) Acronym of Greenland rover and Goddard remotely operated vehicle for exploration and research.


pedipulator

General Electric has been awarded an initial study contract which may lead to the building of a "pedipulator"— a manned walking vehicle intended to replace wheeled or tracked military carriers under certain conditions.

1962, "Walking Machine," Industrial Marketing, vol. 47, issues 7-12, p. 61 (Google snippet view) (retrieved 26 Sept 2013)

In a laboratory in California, a machine which walk across any surface, however uneven, is undergoing final tests. Known as a pedipulator, it can carry a 26-pound pack of delicate instruments on its back at a speed of five miles an hour.

1967 March 23, “Potential of 'Metal Men' Unlimited”, in Calgary Herald Magazine, retrieved 2013-09-26, page 12:

Each of the "legs" of a walking machine can be treated as a pedipulator.

1984, Adam Morecki et al., Cybernetic Systems of Limb Movements in Man, Animals, and Robots, →ISBN, retrieved 2013-09-26, page 63:

Due to the adaptive possibilities of the pedipulators to obstacles, the robot can adjust the working position of the demining sensors while searching landmines.

2006, Lino Marques et al., “Robust Platform for Humanitarian Demining”, in Climbing and Walking Robots, →ISBN, retrieved 2013-09-26, page 1098:

(robotics) A component mechanism which gives a robot the capability of walking; a robot having such a capability.


cybersurgeon

A telesurgeon; one who remotely controls a telerobotic system to perform surgery.


fin gripper

From the reaction of a fish's fin to an applied point force, repurposed to create a mechanical gripping device.

(robotics) A gripper designed to act similarly to how a fish fin wraps around an object that pushes into it


cobot

But then Mr. Kuzmin discovered Universal Robots, which makes collaborative robots, or cobots, which are small, affordable and designed to operate safely side by side with workers. They are easy to program to do multiple tasks and allow the company to crank out parts around the clock.

2018 November 7, Janet Morrissey, “When Robots Ring the Bell”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(robotics) A robot intended to interact physically with humans in a shared workspace.


andy

From android + -y, coined by Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.

Well, no intelligence test would trap such an andy. But then, intelligence tests hadn't trapped an andy in years, not since the primordial, crude varieties of the '70s.

1968, Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?:

1989, Ron Goulart (ghostwriting as William Shatner), TekWar
These damn andies can pass for humans, as can most of the more expensive andies these days.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick


biobot

A robot that is partly or wholly biological in nature, as for example an assemblage of plant cells or animal cells that can perform tasks such as moving and reacting.


robocop

From robo- + cop, after the film RoboCop (1987).

1990, Library and Information Technology Association (U.S.). National Conference, Michael Gorman, Convergence: Proceedings of the Second National Conference...
As the World Wars were succeeded by the Korean War, which melded into the Vietnam War, science fiction pictured numerous dystopias controlled by means of ever-watchful computer and robocops.

Opposite of natural monsters there are technological monsters such as terminators, cyborgs, and robocops—all of which undermine dichotomies between the artificial and the organic, the prosthetic and the natural.

2010, Tyson E. Lewis, Richard Kahn, Education Out of Bounds, page 1:

Robocops, touted by state media as a way of beefing up Shenzhen’s security apparatus, are nowhere to be seen.

2025 April 21, Amy Hawkins, “Humanoid workers and surveillance buggies: ‘embodied AI’ is reshaping daily life in China”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(science fiction) A cyborg police officer.


drillable

The drillable centre-line determining device disclosed in this patent takes the form of an interposer which has on its underside a projecting location pin perpendicular to its upper surface which acts as a planarisation platform.

1984, Robotics Technology Abstracts - Volume 3, page 280:

A drillable robot is capable of placing its end link in any orientation in the pencil of planes containing its first link.

1987, R. E. Trahan, Applied Identification, Modelling and Simulation, page 107:

For the drillable robot, the position of the end link (location of u₅ and u₆) is given.

1991, Robert E. Parkin, Applied Robotic Analysis, page 175:

(robotics) Having an arm or manipulator that can position the tool or attachment at the end in different orientations.


teleassistance

The therapist station is a web-based easy to use service which allows a remote therapist, teleassistance service operator, or another professional to access information stored in the cloud and gathered from users and sensors around them: users' inputs, activities, selections, and sensor data.

2015 June 8, Felip Miralles et al., “Brain Computer Interface on Track to Home”, in The Scientific World Journal, volume 2015, →DOI:

(medicine, robotics) Assistance provided by means of a telecommunication system.


anthropomimetic

While both musculoskeletal robotic hardware and neural control software have existed for decades, a scalable approach that could be used to build and control an anthropomimetic human-scale robot has not been demonstrated yet.

2016, Christoph Richter, Sören Jentzsch, Rafael Hostettler, Jesús A. Garrido, Eduardo Ros, Alois C. Knoll, Florian Röhrbein, Patrick van der Smagt, Jörg Conradt, “Scalability in Neural Control of Musculoskeletal Robots”, in arXiv:

(robotics) Mimicking human physical movements at a structural level.


biometamorphic

(robotics) That has a biological form and is metamorphic


robopsychologist

From robo- + psychologist.
Coined by Isaac Asimov


Three Laws of Robotics

Coined by American science fiction author Isaac Asimov in 1942, introduced in his short story "Runaround".

coin

(science fiction, robotics) A set of rules governing the behavior of robots.


First Law of Robotics

Three Laws of Robotics
Three Laws of Robotics

(science fiction, robotics) One of the Three Laws of Robotics, forbidding a robot to harm a human, through either action or inaction.


Second Law of Robotics

First Law of Robotics
First Law of Robotics

(science fiction, robotics) One of the Three Laws of Robotics, requiring a robot to obey humans, unless it would conflict with the First Law of Robotics (which forbids a robot to harm a human).


Third Law of Robotics

(science fiction, robotics) One of the Three Laws of Robotics, requiring a robot to protect its own existence, as long as this does not conflict with the First Law (which forbids a robot to harm a human) or the Second Law (which requires robots to obey humans).


AWS

“The concern that these weapons might misidentify targets is the least of our worries,” he said. “More significant is the threat of an A.W.S. arms race and proliferation crisis.”

2021 June 3, Maria Cramer, quoting James Dawes, “A.I. Drone May Have Acted on Its Own in Attacking Fighters, U.N. Says”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(military, robotics, artificial intelligence) Initialism of Autonomous Weapons System.


visual servoing

(robotics) The control of a robot by using visual feedback.


sexdroid

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sexdroid.wav


astrobot

1988, IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, IEEE ... Cybernetics and Society
The Kader Astrobot was conceived as a state-of- the-art telerobot and is now in final design stages. Like Project HOST, the Astrobot concept seeks to minimize human extra-vehicular activity (EVA) […]

An expendable rocket will launch a robotic vehicle, Astrobot, equipped with manipulators and the experimental equipment. Astrobot will link the tanks, pad the tanks' interiors with insulation and install the apparatus.

Figure 4 EEU + Astrobot Concept Also shown in Figure 4 is an astrobot which attaches to and interfaces with the EEU. The astrobot provides a data/communications link, television, and a set of dexterous manipulators to permit its operation […]

1990, International Astronautical Congresses, Space safety and rescue, 1988-1989 : proceedings of symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics held in conjunction with the 39th and 40th International Astronautical Congresses:

Astrobot! NASA scientists are regular participants in the DARPA challenge.

2016, The Editors of TIME for Kids, TIME for Kids Explorers: Robots:

(robotics, rare) Robot designed to work in space.


malebot

malebots (plural)
male bot (alternative)
male-bot (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-malebot.wav


prostibot

(science fiction, slang) A sexbot hired out as a prostitute.


underactuate

en-verb

underactuate (third-person singular simple present underactuates, present participle underactuating, simple past and past participle underactuated)

underactuates (present singular third-person)
underactuating (participle present)
underactuated (participle past)
underactuated (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underactuate.wav

The basic idea is to temporarily underactuate the robot system by releasing one of the actuators and to use some additional driving force to guide the parallel kinematic structure through the singularity of type 2.

2010, Daniel Schütz, Friedrich M. Wahl, Robotic Systems for Handling and Assembly, →ISBN, page 101:

Figure 10 refers to a first design for underactuating the LARM finger mechanism by using a linear spring within the body of phalanx 2, [17].

2015, Shaoping Bai, Marco Ceccarelli, Recent Advances in Mechanism Design for Robotics, →ISBN:

A four-bar mechanism (Fig.2) is used to underactuate the fingers so that they can automatically adapt to the shape and size of the object and be less sensitive to positioning errors of the robot relative to the object to grasp.

2018, Vigen Arakelian, Philippe Wenger, ROMANSY 22 – Robot Design, Dynamics and Control, →ISBN:

(robotics) To make less easily actuated or responsive.


robonaut

From robo- + -naut (a robotic astronaut).

A humanoid robot designed to perform relatively complex physical operations on space missions.


microwalk

microwalk (third-person singular simple present microwalks, present participle microwalking, simple past and past participle microwalked)

microwalks (present singular third-person)
microwalking (participle present)
microwalked (participle past)
microwalked (past)

(robotics) To walk using very small steps


microwalking

(robotics) walking using very short steps


SARMO

(military, robotics, artificial intelligence) Abbreviation of sense and react to military objects; A technology methodology for automated weapons response.


actroid

A form of android that can function as an actor or actress.


Moravec's paradox

Articulated in the 1980s by Hans Moravec, among others.

Dr. Herculano-Houzel's research on the human brain reveals an unexpected insight that sheds light on Moravec's paradox: our ability to perceive and respond to our immediate environment actually demands a lot of brainpower.

2016, Hod Lipson, Melba Kurman, Driverless: Intelligent Cars and the Road Ahead, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 73:

(computing, robotics) The observation that, contrary to traditional assumptions, reasoning (which is high-level in humans) requires very little computation, but sensorimotor skills (comparatively low-level in humans) require enormous computational resources.


slaughterbot

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-slaughterbot.wav

(science fiction) Synonym of killbot (“robot designed for killing”).


kidnapped robot problem

en-noun

kidnapped robot problem (plural kidnapped robot problems)

(robotics) The situation where an autonomous robot is carried somewhere and as a result has trouble determining its own location.


Brobot

-butter pats for Dad , and lug nuts for Brobot- Thanks Kumquat! Thanks. Mom! Oh look. Brobot, it's your brother! Hey, Jimmy. You're naked. In the tub!

2003, John A. Davis, Jimmy Neutron, Tokyopop, →ISBN:

The gravitational laws of space allow Brobot's potential to be fully realized!

Martha Brockenbrough, Samantha Berger. Brobot did not sputter , cough , wheeze , or SPLORK ! He beep - bloop - bweedle - eedle - eeped ! BROBOT WAS ALIVE ! " I have a brother ! A ROBOT BROTHER !

2020, Martha Brockenbrough, Samantha Berger, Bigfoot Wants a Little Brother, Scholastic Inc., →ISBN:

This will give you a good insight into personality too, as Brobot's code is written to hassle its users and act just like a 'bro'.

2020, Nicola O’Brien, Heather Catchpole, Ready, Set, Code!: Coding Activities for Kids, CSIRO PUBLISHING, →ISBN, page 23:

(science fiction) A name given to a robot that emulates a brother.


xenobot

blend

translingual <i class="Latn mention" lang="mul">Xenopus</i>

(biology, robotics, artificial life) An artificial construct built from cells extracted from Xenopus embryos, and designed to move, consume, and build piles.


ICRA

(robotics) Initialism of International Conference on Robotics and Automation, an academic conference sponsored by IEEE.


multigait

(biology, robotics) Having multiple gaits to adapt to the environment.


pornbot

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pornbot.wav

“Pornbots” are the sexual Barbies of the future – virtual reality prostitutes run by artificial intelligence (not that they will need much intelligence).

2011, Dave Monroe, Porn - Philosophy for Everyone How to Think With Kink, page 207:

Of course pornbots had been going strong for years and I'd been on a few business trips where progressive hotels had begun listing robotic “services” as part of their adult offerings.

2016, John C. Havens, Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines, page 4:

On the campaign's website, the campaigners declare that their number 1 goal is to “abolish pornbots in the form of women and girls.”

2023, Sven Nyholm, This Is Technology Ethics: An Introduction, page 26:

(slang, sometimes derogatory) A robot or artificial intelligence designed to have (simulated) sex with humans.


master-slave manipulator

en-noun

master-slave manipulator (plural master-slave manipulators)


AprilTag

In this paper, we presented the results of an extensive comparison of four common detection libraries for AprilTags. The performance of the examined libraries varies strongly in terms of computing time and accuracy of the results.

2020, Jan Kallwies, Bianca Forkel, Hans-Joachim Wuensche, “Determining and Improving the Localization Accuracy of AprilTag Detection”, in 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Paris: IEEE, →DOI, page 8293, column 2:

(robotics) A type of tag consisting of a grid of black and white squares, used in robotics and computer vision applications.


teleop

teleop (countable and uncountable, plural teleops)

Clipping of teleoperation, equivalent to tele- + op.

Sanctuary's teleoperated humanoid is very capable, but teleoperation is of course not scalable in the way that even partial autonomy is. What all of this teleop has allowed Sanctuary to do is to collect lots and lots of data about how humans do stuff. The long-term plan is that some of those human manipulation skills can eventually be transferred to a very humanlike robot, which is the design concept underlying Phoenix.

2023 May 16, Evan Ackerman, “Sanctuary's Humanoid Robot Is for General-Purpose Autonomy”, in IEEE Spectrum, New York, N.Y.: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-05-19:

Von der Ohe said that tele-driving technology is so inexpensive from a capital expenditure perspective, he expects that within five to 10 years, any kind of vehicle that runs from the production line will be teleop-enabled, leveraging the ADAS cameras that are already on the vehicle.

2024 September 5, Kirsten Korosec, “Driverless car-sharing startup Vay steers toward B2B services”, in TechCrunch, archived from the original on 2024-09-17:

(robotics) Teleoperation (the remote operation of a machine or device).


DAMN

The Distributed Architecture for Mobile Navigation (DAMN) has been successfully used to integrate various independently developed subsystems, providing systems that perform road following, cross-country navigation, or teleoperation while avoiding obstacles and meeting mission objectives.

1995, J. K. Rosenblatt, C. E. Thorpe, “Combining multiple goals in a behavior-based architecture”, in Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, →DOI, page 136:

In each robot, a path planning algorithm, an obstacle avoidance routine, a slope assessment algorithm, and a task execution unit have all been integrated into a single behavior-based architecture. Navigation is implemented using the DAMN architecture to combine the competing outputs of each behavior module.

2008, Stephen Williams, Antidio Viguria, Ayanna M. Howard, “A robotic mobile sensor network for achieving scientific measurements in challenging environments”, in Proceedings of the Earth Science Technology Conference:

(robotics) Acronym of distributed architecture for mobile navigation.