AUTOMATIC MOBILE ROBOT MACHINE

The word robot can refer to both physical robots and virtual software agents, but the latter are usually referred to as bots. There is no consensus on which machines qualify as robots but there is general agreement among experts, and the public, that robots tend to do some or all of the following: move around, operate a mechanical limb, sense and manipulate their environment, and exhibit intelligent behavior - especially behavior which mimics humans or other animals. In practical terms, "robot" usually refers to a machine which can be electronically programmed to carry out a variety of physical tasks or actions. There is no one definition of robot that satisfies everyone and many people have their own. For example Joseph Engelberger, a pioneer in industrial robotics, once remarked: "I can't define a robot, but I know one when I see one." The two ways that robots differ from actual beings are, simply stated, in the domain of cognition, and in the domain of biological form. The general consensus is that a "robot" is a machine and not a being simply because it is not intelligent (it requires programming to function), regardless of how human-like it may appear. In contrast, an imaginary "machine" or "artificial life form" (as in science fiction) that could think near or above human intelligence, and had a sensory body, would no longer be a "robot" but would be some kind of "artificial being" or "cognitive robot", (see also cyborg).According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, a robot is "any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner." Merriam-Webster describes a robot as a "machine that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts (as walking or talking) of a human being", or a "device that automatically performs complicated often repetitive tasks", or a "mechanism guided by automatic controls".