Abstract
‘What is a robot?’ discusses three definitions of 'a robot': an artificial device that can sense its environment and purposefully act on or in that environment; an embodied artificial intelligence; or a machine that can autonomously carry out useful work. The five functions of robots are identified as sensing, signalling, moving, intelligence, and energy through the example of the e-puck robot; and these functions are compared to their natural equivalents. 'What is a robot?' considers the concepts of autonomy and artificial intelligence and outlines the history of robotics since the first mechanical automata over 2000 years ago.
