what is a robot?

“While there is still discussion about which machines qualify as robots, a typical robot will have several, though not necessarily all of the following properties:

* is not ‘natural’ i.e. artificially created
* can sense its environment, and manipulate or interact with things in it
* has some ability to make choices based on the environment, often using automatic control or a preprogrammed sequence
* is programmable
* moves with one or more axes of rotation or translation
* makes dexterous coordinated movements
* appears to have intent or agency (See anthropomorphism for examples of ascribing intent to inanimate objects.)”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot