Robots,
answered.
Short, factual answers to the questions people ask most about how robots work.
What makes a robot autonomous?
Autonomy is a spectrum, not a yes/no. A teleoperated robot is fully controlled by a human (like a surgical system). A semi-autonomous robot handles parts of a task on its own. A fully autonomous robot perceives, decides, and acts without human input within its operating conditions. Most deployed robots are autonomous only within a constrained, mapped, or supervised envelope.
What is the difference between a humanoid and other robots?
A humanoid has a roughly human form (two legs, two arms, a head) so it can work in spaces and with tools designed for people. Other robots are shaped for their job: quadrupeds for rough terrain, mobile bases for warehouses, arms for assembly. Humanoids are general but harder; specialized robots are narrower but often more reliable and cheaper.
What actually runs onboard a robot?
Typically a perception stack (turning camera, LiDAR, and other sensor data into a model of the world), a planning layer (deciding what to do), and a control layer (driving the actuators precisely). Modern robots increasingly use learned AI models for perception and, sometimes, for control, running on onboard compute.
How did AI change robotics?
AI improved perception (recognizing objects and scenes), enabled learned control for hard tasks like dynamic walking and dexterous manipulation, and is now bringing vision-language-action models that let robots follow instructions. But the physical world is unforgiving: progress in demos does not always translate to reliable, general real-world performance.
Why are some robots teleoperated rather than autonomous?
Because full autonomy is hard and the stakes can be high. Surgery, for example, uses teleoperation so a trained human is always in control. Teleoperation is also used to collect data, handle edge cases, and operate safely while autonomy matures.
Are these robots available to buy?
It varies. Some (consumer vacuums, certain quadrupeds, surgical systems) are commercially available. Others (many humanoids) are in pilots or development, and capability claims about them are often forward-looking. This directory notes each robot's status and is for general understanding, not procurement advice.