[gingerbread-man]

“'I would say that a robot is a physically embodied artificially intelligent agent that can take actions that have effects on the physical world,' says roboticist Anca Dragan of UC Berkeley." [https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-a-robot/]

Industrial robots and Roombas may fit this definition, because they are controlled by fairly sophisticated software that synthesizes inputs from arrays of sensors to perform complex physical tasks. But less advanced machines like dishwashers and garage-door openers don't really reach that level.

Garage door openers do take input from an optical "obstruction" sensor, but the response is binary: don't close the door. In contrast, robotic vacuums translate distance sensor readings into a motion plan to cover every square foot of your room while avoiding obstacles.

[rhino369]

That is a pretty narrow definition of robot. The term is often used to describe programmable, but not artically intelligent, machines. Like robots used in car manufacturing. I agree that washing machines shouldn’t qualify though.

I think robot implies complicated actions that are reprogramable to perform a wider array of functions.

[ovi256]

Like AI, which is whatever's left that current ML can't do well, robotics seems to be whatever current automation can't do well.

If you showed a modern dish washer to Karel Kapek I bet he would have called it a robot.