# What makes a machine a robot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181 "2014-11-09T21:39:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/1 "2014-11-09T21:39:32Z")
You often hear about companies using “robots” in their factories. In the factory where I work, all of the machinery has aspects that are controlled by computers, such as speed and ingredient mixes, but nobody ever refers to them as robots. Does a robot have to have AI? Or is it just a matter of semantics? ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/2 "2014-11-09T21:54:05Z")
In my humble opinion, based on 60 years reading science fiction, a robot has to sense it’s surroundings and make decisions based on that input to be a robot. Bomb Robots controlled by a person viewing a monitor and controlling via a joystick are not robots to me. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/3 "2014-11-09T22:09:41Z")
Robot is not a well-defined term. Give something a mechanical arm and it’s likely to be called a robot, even if it’s completely remotely operated or preprogrammed. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/4 "2014-11-09T22:26:29Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > In my humble opinion, based on 60 years reading science fiction, a robot has to sense it’s surroundings and make decisions based on that input to be a robot. Bomb Robots controlled by a person viewing a monitor and controlling via a joystick are not robots to me. Agreed. Those should be called drones. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/5 "2014-11-09T22:29:20Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > You often hear about companies using “robots” in their factories. In the factory where I work, all of the machinery has aspects that are controlled by computers, such as speed and ingredient mixes, but nobody ever refers to them as robots. Does a robot have to have AI? Or is it just a matter of semantics? As you are asking about the meaning of a word, the question you raise – whatever its answer may be - is, indeed, a matter of semantics. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/6 "2014-11-09T22:32:08Z")
I work in manufacturing too. We don’t call our machines robots, we call them tools. However, there are certain parts of the tool that are called a robot arm. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/7 "2014-11-09T22:59:29Z")
Electronically programmable, unless it is some sort of mechanical or optical (future stuff, wait and see) programmable ones. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/8 "2014-11-09T23:02:26Z")
40 years ago they were speaking of robot radio stations. I assumed at the time that they were stations that were completely operated from a remote location, but don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/9 "2014-11-09T23:07:16Z")
As stated above, the term is not well defined, but if it has a multiaxis, programmable “arm” the term “robot” is usually used. 25 years ago where I worked, the term “flexible automation” was also used interchangeably with robotics. When I get an automated phone call, I say that a robot called me. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/10 "2014-11-09T23:13:07Z")
Yes, robots are automatons–working ‘independently’ of human controllers, but according to fixed instructions. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/11 "2014-11-10T01:29:35Z")
Doesn’t it boil down to having sensors and making decisions? ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/12 "2014-11-10T01:35:27Z")
I seem to remember early spacecraft that crashed into the moon, etc were often called “robots” or “robotic control”. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/13 "2014-11-10T02:14:16Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > Does a robot have to have AI? The things that make automated, pre-recorded-voice phone calls are called robots. So are the “web crawling spiders” that compile the data for search engines (and, of course, despite the talk of “crawling the web” they are really just programs that sit on one computer at Google or wherever’s HQ, and check out lots of web pages and tehe links they contain). Some people might say that to be a “real” robot it must be autonomous, and have AI, but, unfortunately, it is probably at least as hard to pin down what counts as AI as what counts as a robot. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/14 "2014-11-10T02:25:32Z")
A fixed program is not a robot. An autonomous (during its work) physical unit, _running_ a fixed program, is a robot. It may have ‘senses’–it must receive some kind of input to respond to–but all its possible responses are ordained. Nor is a fixed program (embodied in a robot or not) AI. Intelligence means being able to handle circumstances not accounted for in ‘programming’–to learn, to adapt. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/15 "2014-11-10T03:23:51Z")
The definition of “AI” is far more slippery than the definition of “robot”. In practical terms, the definition most often used for “AI” seems to be “what we don’t have yet”. Back before the first chess-playing programs, folks said that chess would require AI. Then, once we passed that milestone, they said well, that’s not _really_ AI. Nowadays, we have devices that you can talk to and ask for the weather next week in Bangkok or the outcome of the 1972 World Series or the integral of z^2 dz whatever other piece of random information you want, and people still don’t consider it AI. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/16 "2014-11-10T03:36:11Z")
Nor do you, right? You know (approximately, anyway) how that clockwork spins. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/17 "2014-11-10T04:03:24Z")
The closest generalization that seems to explain what people call robots is that it is a machine that does a job a human used to do. That covers everything from mindless repetition on assembly lines to nursing units. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/18 "2014-11-10T17:21:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The definition of “AI” is far more slippery than the definition of “robot”. In practical terms, the definition most often used for “AI” seems to be “what we don’t have yet”. Back before the first chess-playing programs, folks said that chess would require AI. Then, once we passed that milestone, they said well, that’s not _really_ AI. Nowadays, we have devices that you can talk to and ask for the weather next week in Bangkok or the outcome of the 1972 World Series or the integral of z^2 dz whatever other piece of random information you want, and people still don’t consider it AI. On the other hand, the subroutines that control the behaviors of NPCs in computer games are conventionally called AI. Mind you, given that Simon, Shaw and Newell wrote a [General Problem Solver](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Problem_Solver) program back in 1959, one might wonder why we still have any unsolved problems. The meaning of AI is slippery, because it has been a deliberately vague, hype term from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/19 "2014-11-10T20:18:50Z")
One of the things that has come out of AI research is the realization that we don’t actually know how natural intelligence works and while some are still working on the “mimic a brain” idea, most of today’s “artificial intelligence” - like Google’s speech recognition - achieve their results in ways that don’t mimic human thought and so people are loath to call it “intelligence” of any sort. Personally, I think computer intelligence will always be something that achieves human intelligence like results in a completely non-human like way. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181/20 "2014-11-10T20:42:07Z")
> [@GaryM](#): > > In my humble opinion, based on 60 years reading science fiction, a robot has to sense it’s surroundings and make decisions based on that input to be a robot. Bomb Robots controlled by a person viewing a monitor and controlling via a joystick are not robots to me. And this why the British press talked about a robot invasion in the 1940s! Because those robots did follow simple mechanical programs and were not controlled remotely: From the QI tv quiz show: > **[QI: Series F, Episode 9 - The Future - British Comedy Guide](https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/6/9/)** > > A guide to The Future, Episode 9 from Series F of QI. > [@](#): > > - Britain was invaded by robots in the 1940s. In the press, the word “Robot” was used to refer to the V1 and V2 rockets, although reference to them was avoided as much as possible in order to prevent the Nazis from knowing how successful they were. The word “Robot” comes from a Slavic word “Robota”, meaning “Slave worker”. It was popularised by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-makes-a-machine-a-robot/704181.md?page=2)