Lesson 0 · What Is a Robot? — Knowledge ChecksAnswer key

Which device from the lineup does the 1979 'reprogrammable manipulator' definition clearly leave out, even though almost everyone agrees it's a robot?

1. A.The towel-folding robot — it has arms
2. B.The Mars rover — it drives and explores, but it isn't a manipulator arm✓
3. C.The RC airplane
4. D.The canister vacuum

The 1979 definition describes a factory arm. A rover, a drone, or a robot vacuum has no manipulator at all — yet they're clearly robots. That's why we need a better definition.

Using sense–think–act, why isn't the RC airplane a robot?

1. A.It can't fly high enough
2. B.The human does the sensing and thinking — the plane only acts✓
3. C.It has no motor
4. D.It isn't reprogrammable

The plane acts (motor, control surfaces), but all the sensing (the pilot's eyes) and deciding (the pilot's hands) happen in a person. Two of the three traits are missing from the machine itself.

Why can't NASA fly a Mars rover the way you'd fly the RC airplane?

1. A.Mars has no radio
2. B.The radio delay is minutes each way, so the rover must sense the ground and decide for itself✓
3. C.Rovers have no motors
4. D.It could — they just prefer not to

A command takes minutes to arrive and the reply takes minutes to come back. By then the rover could have driven off a ledge. Distance forces it to do its own sensing and thinking — the definition of a robot.

A washing machine senses the load, follows cycle logic, and spins on its own. Under sense–think–act, what's the honest answer?

1. A.Definitely not a robot — it doesn't move around
2. B.It does all three in a simple, fixed way — so it sits at the low end of a robot spectrum, and the argument is the point✓
3. C.Definitely a robot, exactly like a Mars rover
4. D.It fails because it has no sensors

By the letter of the definition it qualifies, just barely: simple sensing, fixed logic, one kind of action. That's why 'robot' is best thought of as a spectrum. A good definition makes the disagreement precise — it doesn't always make it go away.

Which of the three traits will you spend most of Module 1 on?

1. A.Sense — reading sensors
2. B.Act — making the robot drive, turn, and draw shapes✓
3. C.Think — pathfinding algorithms
4. D.None — Module 1 is all theory

Module 1 is about controlling the motors: driving, turning, shapes. Sensing arrives in Module 2, and the heavy thinking (pathfinding) in Modules 4–5.