Robots, Robotic Topics, and Robot References +

(background information about robots and applicable robotic terms)

New “robot” words have come into existence and are continually being created.

aerobot
1. A helium-filled balloon fitted with heaters that are powered by solar cells.
2. A term for craft designed to explore solar-system bodies such as Venus, Mars, and Titan.
Three sorts of aerobots have been proposed or are under development:
  • One type is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is launched from an orbiting spacecraft and deploys wings before it lands.
  • The second is a lighter-than-air craft, a helium-filled balloon fitted with heaters powered by solar cells.
  • A third is a hybrid balloon-kite system sometimes called a helikite.

Unlike satellites or the winged aerobot, the lighter-than-air versions can fly for extended times, allowing long-term monitoring of the properties of the atmosphere.

Such aerobots can fly in the atmosphere; therefore, allowing experiments to be carried out on its chemistry. NASA scientists can also view and record the ground from much lower altitudes than is possible with satellites.

During the day, solar energy will heat the helium and give it extra buoyancy; at night, the balloon will drop to lower altitudes or even touch the ground.

The word combines the prefix aero-, "air" as in "aeronautics" (or "aerial") + bot, a common abbreviated form of "robot".

anthrobotics
The development of robots resembling humans, the study and development of robots that are intended to behave like or to resemble human beings.

From late 20th century, a blend of anthropo- and robotics.

autonomous robot
A reference to robotic systems to indicate their ability to perform tasks without human supervision.
BattleBots
An American company that hosts robot competitions.

The purpose of the competition is for one robot, or "bot", to dominate or disable the other robot.

The "robots" entered in such contests are not true robots in that they are not autonomous in their actions because they are remotely controlled by their teams, so they might be more properly referred to as Remotely Operated Vehicles or ROVs.

biorobots
1. Robots that emulate or simulate living biological organisms mechanically or chemically.
2. Making biological organisms as controllable and functional as robots.
cryobot
A surface-controlled, nonrecoverable instrumented vehicle that can penetrate polar ice sheets down to 3,600 meters by melting.

It can be used to measure temperature, stress, ice movement; as well as, seismic, acoustic and dielectric properties.

The probe consists of a hot point for melt penetration, instrumentation for control and measurement functions, two supply conductor coils to link the probe with the surface for transmission of power and measurement signals, and a reservoir section.

The probe is filled with a dielectric fluid or fluid with high electrical resistance.

domobot
A domotic microbot or a robot used for household chores.

Domotic means "connected to a home automation network".

Domobots can be connected to a domotic controller (a computer or similar device) through a cable (USB port) or wirelessly (usually through a WiFi port).

They are mostly used for domestic work; such as, vacuum cleaning, and transporting objects around the house to wash or to iron them, etc.

dorkbot
A group of affiliated organizations worldwide that sponsor meetings of artists, engineers, designers, scientists, inventors, and anyone else working under the very broad field of electronic art.

The dorkbot motto: "People doing strange things with electricity".

drobot
A robot that smokes marijuana.

The term comes from dro, slang for "pot" + bot, slang for "robot" = drobot.

ecobot
A robot that is directly and entirely powered directly by on-board microbial or bacterial fuel cells (MFCs).
Leonardo's robot
A humanoid automaton designed by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1495.

The design notes for the robot appear in Leonardo's sketchbooks that were rediscovered in the 1950's.

Since the discovery of the sketchbook, the robot has been built based on Leonardo's design; this proved it was fully functional, as Leonardo had planned.

The robot is a warrior, clad in German-Italian medieval armor, which is apparently able to make several human-like motions.

These motions include sitting up, moving its arms, neck, and an anatomically correct jaw. It is partly the result of Leonardo's anatomical research in the "Canon of Proportions" as described in the Vitruvian Man.

mailbot, MAIL roBOT
A software agent in a mail server that is typically used to send an automatic response to the sender.

Mailbots are often used to send out-of-office replies, but can be made to send back any message.

mediabot
The name given to the web crawler that Google uses to crawl web pages in order to analyze the content so Google AdSense can serve contextually relevant advertising to the page.

Mediabot visits those pages running Google AdSense ads which have not blocked its access via a robots.txt file and it's a Google recommendation that webmasters specifically add a command to their robots.txt file granting Mediabot access to the entire site.

The Mediabot revisits pages on a regular, but unpredictable basis and any changes made on a page may not immediately result in changes to the ads displayed on the page.

Ads can still be shown on a page even if the Mediabot has not yet scanned it; therefore, the ads chosen will be based on the overall theme of the other pages on the site. If no ads can be chosen, public service announcements may be displayed or blank areas might result.

microbot
A mobile robot with a microcontroller.

Due to its limited computing power, microbots are dedicated to solving tasks quickly and accurately that don’t require high processing power and complex algorithms.

microbotics
A techno-science term referring to microbots.

Originally from a Czech word robota, "force work", here is a link explaining the origins and modern applications of robots and robotics, words which have resulted in explanations about the manufacturing of devices that are capable of doing work ordinarily done by human beings.