Robotic Glossary
Acutator - A device for moving or controlling
a tool or a part of a tool.
Android - A robot or automaton, resembling a
human.
Artifical Intelligence (A.I.) - A computer program
that resembles or takes the place of a human with thought
processes. As well as programs that are operated without
human assistance.
Automation - The technology involving the application
of self-governing machines
Automaton - A figure that is mechanically driven
and controlled.
Biomorphic - The description of machines resembling
the forms of living organisms.
Bionics - The science of applying biological
principles to nonbiological systems.
Bot - An abbreviation of robot.
Cam - A rotating cylinder of ireegular shape
which moves with other components.
Caterpillar Treads - Treads consisting of loops
of textured grippers that fit over wheels to provide
greater traction.
Controller - In robotics, computers that are
used to control machines.
CPU - The acronym for Center Processing Unit
Cybernetics - An interdisciplinary science of
mechanical control systems and their similarity to natural
mechanisms found in living creatures.
Cyborg-in robotics, a being that combines human
parts or functions with machine parts and functions.
Degrees of Freedom - in robotics, the number
of directions allowed by a mechanical joint through
which motion can be effected.
Digital-How information is recroded and stored
as sequences of binary numbers in computerized devices.
Droids-A synonym for any type of robot and an
abbreviation of Android.
Drone-Uncrewed robotic machine operated by a
remote control or a robot used for mass manual labor.
Embedded System - In robotics, AI software built
into or buried in and referenced by another larger piece
of algorithmic software.
Expert System - In robotics a program consisting
of a knowledge base, an inference engine or reasoning
system and a natural language user interface.
Feedback-Looping the output of a system back
to its input or source.
FLOPS- An acronym for floating pint operations
per second. A term used when measuring the performance
of supercomputeres and array processors that use floating
point numbers.
Forward chaining-A technique used in problem-solving
production and rule-based systems where conclusions
are drawn or decisions are made by first starting with
known facts. Also known as bottom up reasonsing or data
driven reasoning.
