1. What Is a Robot Anyway?

Robot Sensitivity Training Lesson #1: All robots are machines, but not all machines are robots.

Ask any 10 people what a robot is and you’re bound to get at least 10 different opinions: radio controlled toy dogs, automated bank teller machines, remote-controlled battle-bots, self-operating vacuum cleaners, drones that fly unattended, voice-activated smartphones, battery-operated action figures, titanium-plated hydraulic-powered battle chassis exoskeletons, and the list goes on.

It might not be easy to define what a robot is, but we all know one when we see one, right? The rapid growth of software-controlled devices has blurred the line between automated devices and robots. Just because an appliance or device is software-controlled ...

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