Words that designers, engineers and researchers use together when making robots. Each definition lists its sources, says why it matters to industrial designers and links to related cases in the archive.
24 terms
The field that studies, designs and evaluates robots used by or with people. The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction is the field’s main venue.
HRI covers not only how a robot looks but when it speaks, where it stops and how it responds. It is where industrial design’s concern with usability and context of use extends to products that move and decide for themselves.
An autonomous or semi-autonomous robot that interacts and communicates with people by following the behavioural norms they expect (Bartneck & Forlizzi, 2004). Fong et al. (2003) gave a broader definition, robots for which social interaction is important.
In a social robot, expression, voice and gesture are the function. That raises expectations. Jibo and Pepper, both promoted for their emotions, disappointed where ability fell short of expectation; PARO, which never talks, left little gap.
A robot that performs useful tasks for people or equipment, in personal or professional use. The international standard ISO 8373:2021 divides robots into industrial, service and medical robots; medical robots became a separate category in the 2021 edition.
Service robots are defined by their task, social robots by social interaction, so one robot can be both. When a robot with a job is given a human-like body, people judge it on both counts. That is why Pepper in shops was compared with a tablet.
Related cases Pepper
A prototype that actually works. Houde and Hill (1997) define a prototype as any representation of a design idea, regardless of medium, and distinguish role, look-and-feel and implementation prototypes, plus integration prototypes that combine all three. Hardware companies often build separate looks-like and works-like prototypes.
Much about a robot cannot be judged from a model. Speed of movement, noise, weight and moments of lag only show up when it runs. Designers need to be involved from the works-like stage to handle form and motion together.
In this glossary, the work of designing a robot’s mechanics, electronics and firmware and bringing them to a state that can be mass-produced. Consumer hardware usually passes three validation stages. EVT checks that it works as designed; DVT checks that units made at the production factory meet cosmetic and functional requirements; PVT runs production as close to mass production as possible.
The later the stage, the harder it is to change the form. Designers who settle the relationship between internal structure and exterior with engineers before EVT avoid major changes at DVT.
The parts of a robot’s body that are moved by actuators such as motors, and how they are arranged: which parts move, in which directions and around how many axes. It is not a fixed standard term. ISO 8373 recommends describing a robot’s motion in terms of axes, and Korean engineering literature calls a robot’s moving mechanism 구동부.
What moves shapes a robot’s expression and character. Jibo turned three cylindrical sections to lean and turn its head; PARO moves its head, flippers, tail and eyelids. More actuated parts mean richer expression, but also more cost, more noise and more things to break.
A device with which a robot measures its own state or its surroundings. ISO 8373:2012 distinguishes internal state sensors, which measure the robot’s internal state (encoders, accelerometers, gyroscopes and so on), from external state sensors, which measure the environment or the robot’s interaction with it (vision, distance, force, tactile and acoustic sensors).
Which sensors and where they sit is also a design question. Where a camera looks and whether there are touch sensors where hands land change how people treat a robot. LOVOT has touch sensors over almost its whole body; PARO recognises stroking and being picked up with five kinds of sensor.
Related cases PARO
The device that produces the force that moves a robot. ISO 8373:2012 defines it as a power mechanism used to effect motion of the robot. Electric motors are the most common.
An actuator’s size, weight, noise and heat show up directly in the exterior and in use. Researchers using Pepper complained that it had to cool down for up to 30 minutes because of overheating.
Related cases Pepper
The minimum number of independent coordinates needed to describe the configuration of a body or robot. A revolute or prismatic joint usually adds one degree of freedom. ISO 8373:2012 advises using axes rather than this term when describing a robot’s motion.
More degrees of freedom mean more possible movements, but also more control effort and cost. Deciding how many a gesture needs to be meaningful to people is a design decision.
A device attached to the mechanical interface at the end of a robot so that it can perform its task, such as a gripper, nut runner, welding gun or spray gun (ISO 8373:2012).
For robots working near people, usefulness depends on what the end effector can hold. Pepper had no hand that could grasp objects; Moxi carries supplies with an arm and gripper.
Related cases Pepper
The maximum load that can be applied to a robot’s mechanical interface or mobile platform in normal operating conditions without degrading performance, including the weight and inertial effects of the end effector, accessories and workpiece (ISO 8373:2012, rated load).
For a service robot, payload is usefulness. BellaBot carries up to 40 kg on four trays, and relieving staff of heavy carrying was named as the reason it stayed in restaurants.
The problem, and the technique for solving it, of a mobile robot placed in an unknown environment building a map of it step by step while working out its own position within that map (Durrant-Whyte & Bailey, 2006).
Homes, restaurants and hospitals keep changing: chairs move and people pass by. Some conditions of a space are not solved by mapping and localisation alone. At some hospitals Moxi got lost and could not ride elevators on its own, so someone had to walk with it.
The base a mobile robot returns to on its own to recharge when it finishes a job or its battery runs low. iRobot explains that Roomba returns to its Home Base to recharge at the end of a cleaning job or when the battery is low, and that a robot picked up and moved elsewhere may have difficulty finding it.
The dock is where a robot lives in the home. Where it sits, and how the robot looks as it goes back to rest, are part of the experience. In a study of LOVOT at a dementia care home, staff named charging as a concern.
A two-digit rating of how well an enclosure keeps out solid objects and water, defined in IEC 60529. The first digit (0–6) covers solid objects such as dust; the second (0–9) covers water. A first digit of 6 means dust-tight.
Robots placed where there is water and dust, and where they are wiped down often, such as restaurants and hospitals, are shaped by this rating down to their seams, gaps and button positions. Cleaning problems can stop use before any function does. Difficulty keeping PARO’s fur clean was named as a barrier to its use in care homes.
Related cases PARO
The effect in which affinity for a robot rises as it looks more human, then drops sharply into unease just before it becomes almost human. The Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori described it in 1970.
Mori advised designers to take the first peak, before the valley, as their goal. Pepper’s developers say they deliberately avoided an overly human look to stay clear of the valley. PARO’s choice of an unfamiliar animal, a seal, likewise avoided comparison with the real thing.
The tendency to give the behaviour of non-human agents human-like characteristics, motivations, intentions and emotions (Epley, Waytz & Cacioppo, 2007).
People anthropomorphise robots easily. AIBOs were given funerals, and when Moxie’s service ended, children cried and begged to save their friend. Anthropomorphism builds attachment, and it also deepens the loss when a company disappears. Duffy (2003) treated how much anthropomorphism to build into a robot’s form and behaviour as a design question.
A study method in which participants believe they are using a working system while a hidden experimenter produces its responses. Kelley (1984) named it the OZ paradigm while designing a natural-language office system. In HRI, a remote operator, the “wizard”, controls the robot’s movements, speech and gestures.
It lets you test how people will interact with a robot before its AI is finished, which makes it useful for checking behaviour and dialogue before a working prototype exists. Riek (2012) reviewed 54 WoZ studies in HRI and proposed new reporting guidelines.
The study of how people use and adjust the distances between them according to social behaviour and perception, proposed by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall. An HRI framework (Walters et al., 2009) uses roughly these zones; intimate up to 0.45 m, personal 0.45–1.2 m, social 1.2–3.6 m and public beyond 3.6 m.
Where a robot stops and how close it comes changes how comfortable people feel. A robot made to be held, like LOVOT, is designed from the start to come inside the intimate zone.
How quickly people can tell from a robot’s movement alone where it is going or what it intends to do. Dragan et al. (2013) showed that predictability, how well motion matches expectation, and legibility are fundamentally different and often contradictory properties of motion.
In a hospital corridor, people hesitate less if they can see in advance which way a robot will move aside. Designers can reveal intent not only through form but through the path and speed of movement and the direction of a head or eyes.
Designing a product from the start so that it is easy to make and assemble; with assembly included it is called DFMA. Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight’s Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly sets out the factors that affect ease of manufacture and assembly, aiming for products that are simpler in configuration, easier to make and lower in overall cost.
Robots have many parts, and motors, wiring and sensors must fit inside the exterior. Parting lines, fixings and part count are where a designer’s decisions turn directly into cost and repairability. AIBO, which could be repaired, was brought back by a repair shop after its maker left.
Related cases AIBO
A list of all the sub-assemblies, intermediates, parts and raw materials that go into a product, showing the quantity of each required.
A robot’s price starts with its BOM. Every material, finish and part a designer chooses becomes a line in it. Embodied described how it brought Moxie to market at the lowest price it could.
The international standard for the safety of personal care robots that work close to people. The 2014 edition covers mobile servant robots, physical assistant robots and person carrier robots, travelling on the ground at up to 20 km/h, and excludes robot toys and industrial and medical robots. Korea adopted it as KS B ISO 13482. A revised edition, retitled Safety requirements for service robots, covers personal and professional service robots together; it reached the final ballot stage in September 2026.
The form, materials, speed and edge treatment a designer chooses meet safety requirements directly. The revision extends the scope to professional service robots working in places such as restaurants and hospitals.
The ethics review and approval required before research involving children begins. In law it is review and approval, not certification. Korea’s Bioethics and Safety Act counts research that gathers data by observing behaviour or by face-to-face surveys as human-subject research and requires review by an institutional review board (IRB) beforehand; for participants under 18, written consent from a legal representative or other proxy is required. The Royal College of Art’s research ethics policy treats research with children as more than minimal risk and requires a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, plus the equivalent clearance when research takes place overseas. US federal rules require parental permission and the child’s own assent.
Testing a robot prototype with children is common in design, but in law it can be human-subject research. Schedules need to allow for review, and consent forms and information sheets need to be designed so that children and parents can understand them. UNICEF published version 3.0 of its guidance on AI and children in December 2025.
In Korea, products used by children aged 13 or under go through one of three procedures under the Special Act on the Safety of Children’s Products, depending on risk; safety certification, safety confirmation or supplier’s declaration of conformity. Toys fall under safety confirmation. This is separate from research ethics review.
Selling a robot for children means going through product safety procedures. Whether a robot with a battery or wireless connection also needs electrical or radio certification has to be checked product by product.
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