In this chapter, we have looked at what the word robot means, and the facts and fiction with robots. We have defined what a real robot is, and gained some idea of what a machine needs to do to be considered a robot.
We've investigated the robots seen in the home, and in industry, and those that are designed to amaze or have traveled to other planets. We've also looked at hobbyist and education robots, and how some of these are just built for fun. You've seen some block diagrams of real-world devices that may not have been considered robots, and have seen how our homes may already have a number of robots present.
Now we know what robots are, let's move on to the next chapter, in which we'll look at how to plan a robot so we can build it.