Robotics Glossary

Welcome to our robotics glossary page. Here, you can find definitions of key terms related to robotics, including definitions of basic concepts and technical terms. We have included both common and uncommon terms so that anyone interested in robotics can have access to comprehensive and accurate information. We hope this page can be a helpful resource and aid in your understanding of the robotics field.

You may also be interested in the How It Works page, here are a sample of the articles you’ll find in there:

I2C

Gears

Capacitors

Python Virtual Environments

Tact Switches

18650

Actuator

ADC

Algorithm

Android (Operating System)

Android (Robot)

anion

Anode

APA102

arduino

Battery

breadboard

Buck Converter

Bundle Adjustment

Capacitance

Capacitor

Cathode

cation

Conductance

Current

debounce

DHT11

Diode

Electrode

electrolyte

esp32

esp8266

Farad

Firmware

Gears

GPIO

gps

H-Bridge

Hall effect

I2C

imu

Inductance

Level shifter

lidar

Loop closure

mah

MEMS

Motor

MQTT

NeoPixel

Neural Network

Ohms Law

OTA

PCA9685

PID

Pose Estimation

Pot

PWM

pybricks

radar

raspberrypi

redis

Resistance

RGB LED Strip

Robot

ros

ros2

rtk

RViz2

Servo

Servo Easing

slam

SPI

stm32

tactile switch

tcrt5000

Torque

Transistor

UART

Ultrasonic

Voltage

ws2812

X11

X11 Forwarding

18650: 18650 Battery; The 18650 is a type of rechargeable lithium-ion battery. It is commonly used in portable electronics, such as mobile phones, laptops, flashlights, e-cigarettes (Vape) and in electric vehicles.
Actuator: Actuator; An actuator is a component of a machine that is responsible for moving and controlling a mechanism or system. Actuators are powered by electric motors, hydraulic cylinders, pneumatic cylinders, or even compressed air or hand.
ADC: Analog to Digital Converter; An analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal.
Algorithm: Algorithm; An algorithm is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are always unambiguous and are used as specifications for performing calculations, data processing, automated reasoning, and other tasks.
Android (Operating System): Android; Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. It is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Android (Robot): Android; An android is a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human, especially one with a body that resembles a human's in appearance or behavior.
anion: anion; An anion is a negatively charged ion. It may be a monatomic ion or a polyatomic ion.
Anode: Anode; an electrode through which the conventional current enters; In electronics, an anode is the electrode of an electrolytic cell or a diode through which the conventional current enters. The anode is the electrode at which oxidation occurs.
APA102: APA102; The APA102 is a smart control LED light source that the control circuit and RGB chip are integrated in a package of 5050 components. It internally includes digital port latch and signal reshaping amplification drive circuit. The control circuit can receive and translate data from the microcontroller. The RGB chip can generate a variety of colors.
arduino: An open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software; Arduino is an open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for anyone making interactive projects.
Battery: Battery; A battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections provided to power electrical devices such as flashlights, smartphones, and electric cars. When a battery is supplying electric power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its negative terminal is the anode. The terminal marked negative is the source of electrons that when connected to an external circuit will flow and power the circuit. It is the movement of those electrons within the external circuit that allows current to flow.
breadboard: breadboard; A breadboard is a construction base for prototyping of electronics. Originally it was literally a bread board, a polished piece of wood used for slicing bread. In the 1970s the solderless breadboard (a.k.a. plugboard, a terminal array board) became available and nowadays the term "breadboard" is commonly used to refer to these.
Buck Converter: Buck Converter; A buck converter is a DC-to-DC power converter that steps down voltage from its input to its output. It is a type of switched-mode power supply (SMPS) that uses a switching regulator to convert the input voltage to a lower output voltage.
Bundle Adjustment: Bundle Adjustment; Bundle adjustment is a technique used in computer vision to refine the parameters of a camera model and the 3D structure of a scene from a set of 2D-3D point correspondences. It is a nonlinear least squares optimization problem.
Capacitance: Capacitance; Capacitance is the ability of a body to store an electrical charge. Any object that can be electrically charged exhibits capacitance. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor. In a parallel plate capacitor, capacitance is directly proportional to the surface area of the conductor plates and inversely proportional to the separation distance between the plates.
Capacitor: Capacitor; A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores electrical energy in an electric field. The effect of a capacitor is known as capacitance. The capacitor was originally known as a condenser or condensator.
Cathode: Cathode; an electrode through which the conventional current leaves; In electronics, a cathode is the electrode of an electrolytic cell or a diode through which the conventional current leaves. The cathode is the electrode at which reduction occurs.
cation: cation; A cation is a positively charged ion. It may be a monatomic ion or a polyatomic ion.
Conductance: Conductance; The electrical conductance of an electrical conductor is a measure of the ease with which an electric current passes. It is the reciprocal of the electrical resistance. A conductor's conductance is often represented by the symbol G.
Current: Current; An electric current is a flow of electric charge. In electric circuits this charge is often carried by moving electrons in a wire. It can also be carried by ions in an electrolyte, or by both ions and electrons such as in an ionised gas (plasma).
debounce: debouncing; Debouncing is the process of removing the small ripple that forms on the output of a switch when it is pressed and released. The effect, from a data input perspective is that the switch is pressed multiple times. Adding a debounce in software or hardware removes this effect.
DHT11: DHT11; The DHT11 is a basic, ultra low-cost digital temperature and humidity sensor. It uses a capacitive humidity sensor and a thermistor to measure the surrounding air, and spits out a digital signal on the data pin (no analog input pins needed). Its fairly simple to use, but requires careful timing to grab data.
Diode: Diode; A diode is a two-terminal electronic component with asymmetric conductance. It has low (ideally zero) resistance to the current in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other.
Diode: Diode; A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts primarily in one direction (asymmetric conductance); it has low (ideally zero) resistance in one direction, and high (ideally infinite) resistance in the other. A diode vacuum tube or thermionic diode is a vacuum tube with two electrodes, a heated cathode and a plate, in which electrons can flow in only one direction, from cathode to plate. A semiconductor diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material with a p–n junction connected to two electrical terminals.
Electrode: Electrode; An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). The word was coined by William Whewell at the request of the scientist Michael Faraday from two Greek words: elektron, meaning amber (from which the word electricity is derived), and hodos, a way.
electrolyte: electrolyte; An electrolyte is a substance that produces an electrically conducting solution when dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. The dissolved electrolyte separates into cations and anions, which disperse uniformly through the solvent.
esp32: A series of low-cost, low-power system on a chip microcontrollers with integrated Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth; ESP32 is a series of low-cost, low-power system on a chip microcontrollers with integrated Wi-Fi and dual-mode Bluetooth.
esp8266: A series of low-cost, self-contained Wi-Fi microcontrollers with integrated TCP/IP stack; ESP8266 is a series of low-cost, self-contained Wi-Fi microcontrollers with integrated TCP/IP stack.
Farad: A unit of electrical capacitance; The farad (symbol: F) is the SI derived unit of electrical capacitance, the ability of a body to store an electrical charge. It is named after the English physicist Michael Faraday.
Firmware: Sofware embedded/fixed in hardware; Firmware is a type of software that is embedded in a hardware device. It is a type of software that is embedded in a hardware device.
fk: Forward Kinematics; The use of the kinematic equations of a robot to compute the joint parameters from specified values for the position of the end-effector.
Gears: Gears & Cogs; A gear or cogwheel is a rotating machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel, inserted teeth (called cogs), which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source.
GPIO: General Purpose Input/Output; General-purpose input/output (GPIO) is a generic pin on an integrated circuit whose behavior, including whether it is an input or output pin, is controllable by the user at run time. The name general-purpose input/output reflects the fact that the pin is not dedicated to a specific function at design time.
gps: Global Positioning System; The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provides geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.
H-Bridge: H-Bridge; An H bridge is an electronic circuit that enables a voltage to be applied across a load in either direction. These circuits are often used in robotics and other applications to allow DC motors to run forwards or backwards.
Hall effect: Hall effect; Hall effect encoders are sensors that use the Hall effect to detect the angular position of a rotating object. The Hall effect is a phenomenon in which a voltage is created when a magnetic field is exposed to a current carrying conductor. In a Hall effect encoder, a magnet is attached to the rotating object, and a Hall effect sensor is placed near it. As the object rotates, the magnetic field changes and the Hall effect sensor detects these changes. The output of the sensor is then used to measure the angular position of the object.
I2C: i2c (I-squared-C); I2C, pronounced I-squared-C, is a synchronous, multi-master, multi-slave, packet switched, single-ended, serial computer bus invented by Philips Semiconductor (now NXP Semiconductors). It is commonly used for attaching lower-speed peripheral ICs to processors and microcontrollers in short-distance, intra-board communication.
ik: Inverse Kinematics; The use of the kinematic equations of a robot to compute the position of the end-effector from specified values for the joint parameters.
imu: Inertial Measurement Unit; An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the magnetic field surrounding the body, using a combination of accelerometers and gyroscopes, or magnetometers.
Inductance: Inductance; In electromagnetism and electronics, inductance is the property of an electrical conductor by which a change in electric current through it induces an electromotive force (voltage) in the conductor. It is called self-inductance to distinguish it from mutual inductance, which is the property of a circuit whereby a change in electric current in one circuit produces an electromotive force in another circuit.
Level shifter: Level shifter; A level shifter is a circuit that converts a signal from one voltage level to another. It is used to convert a signal from one voltage level to another.
lidar: Light Detection and Ranging; LIDAR is a surveying method that measures distance to a target by illuminating that target with a laser light and measuring the reflected light with a sensor.
Loop closure: Loop closure; Loop closure is a technique used in simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) to determine the relative pose of a robot with respect to a previously visited location. Loop closure is a fundamental problem in SLAM.
mah: Milliampere hour; An ampere hour or amp hour (symbol: A⋅h or A h; often simplified as Ah) is a unit of electric charge, having dimensions of electric current multiplied by time, equal to the charge transferred by a steady current of one ampere flowing for one hour, or 3,600 coulombs.
MEMS: MEMS; MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) is the technology of miniaturizing mechanical devices and systems by using microelectronic components. MEMS devices are used in a wide range of applications, including automotive, consumer, industrial, medical, and telecommunications. MEMS devices are also used in a variety of sensors, actuators, and other devices.
Motor: Motor; A motor is a machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy. Most motors operate through the conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy, but some types of motors convert energy from other sources, such as hydraulic or pneumatic energy.
MQTT: MQTT; MQTT is a machine-to-machine (M2M)/"Internet of Things" connectivity protocol. It was designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport. It is useful for connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. For example, it has been used in sensors communicating to a broker via satellite link, over occasional dial-up connections with healthcare providers, and in a range of home automation and small device scenarios.
NeoPixel: NeoPixel; NeoPixel is a brand name for individually addressable RGB LED pixels. The pixels are controlled by a single microcontroller, such as an Arduino or Raspberry Pi. The pixels are arranged in a strip, and the strip is connected to the microcontroller. The microcontroller can then control the color of each pixel.
Neural Network: Neural Network; A neural network is a network or circuit of neurons, or in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of real biological neurons, or an artificial neural network, for solving artificial intelligence (AI) problems."
Ohms Law: Ohms Law; Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship: I = V/R. Where I is the current through the conductor in units of amperes, V is the voltage measured across the conductor in units of volts, and R is the resistance of the conductor in units of ohms. Ohms law is named after Georg Simon Ohm, who was a German physicist and mathematician. He discovered Ohm's law in 1827, and published his results in 1827, in the book "Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet" (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically).
OTA: Over The Air; OTA stands for Over The Air. It is a method of updating the firmware of a device without having to connect it to a computer.
PCA9685: PCA9685 Servo Driver Board; The PCA9685 is a 16-channel, 12-bit PWM controller. It is designed to drive LED loads with up to 25 mA per channel. It can be controlled via I2C.
PID: PID; PID is a control loop feedback mechanism. It is used to control the position of a servo.
Pose Estimation: Pose Estimation; Pose estimation is the process of determining the position and orientation of an object in a given image. Pose estimation is a fundamental problem in computer vision and robotics. It is used in many applications, such as augmented reality, robotics, and autonomous driving.
Pot: Potentiometer; A potentiometer, or pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. A potentiometer is a passive two-terminal resistor.
PWM: Pulse Width Modulation; Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is a modulation technique used to encode a message into a pulsing signal. The width of each pulse is varied in accordance with the message. The pulse width can be varied between 0% and 100% of the period.
pybricks: pybricks; pybricks is a Python library for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 and LEGO® BOOST. It is a Python library for LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 and LEGO® BOOST.
radar: Radio Detection and Ranging; Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain.
raspberrypi: A series of small single-board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Ltd; The Raspberry Pi is a series of small single-board computers developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation to promote the teaching of basic computer science in schools and in developing countries.
redis: redis; Redis is an open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store, used as a database, cache and message broker.
Resistance: Resistance; Electrical resistance is a measure of the degree to which an object opposes an electric current through it. The SI unit of electrical resistance is the ohm. Its reciprocal quantity is electrical conductance measured in siemens.
RGB LED Strip: RGB LED Strip; An RGB LED strip is a flexible circuit board populated with RGB LEDs. The LEDs are arranged in a row, and the strip is typically 5 mm wide. The strip is powered by a DC voltage, and the LEDs are controlled by a microcontroller.
Robot: Robot; A robot is a machine, especially one programmable by a computer, capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. Robots can be guided by an external control device or the control may be embedded within.
ros: Robot Operating System; The Robot Operating System (ROS) is a set of software libraries and tools that help you build robot applications.
ros2: Robot Operating System, version 2; ROS 2 is the next generation of ROS, built to support the needs of the robotics community in an era of rapidly evolving hardware and increasing competition.
rtk: Real Time Kinematic; Real-time kinematic (RTK) is a satellite navigation positioning technique that allows the user to achieve centimeter-level accuracy. RTK is a form of differential GPS (DGPS) that uses a base station to provide corrections to a rover receiver.
RViz2: ROS Visualization tool; RViz is a 3D visualization tool for ROS. It is a graphical tool that allows the user to visualize data from a ROS system. It is a tool that is used to visualize data from a ROS system.
Servo: Servo; A servo is a device for controlling the position or the velocity of a mechanism. Servos can be pneumatic, hydraulic or electric. In general, the servo operates on one of two principles: the control of angular position or the control of linear position.
Servo Easing: Servo Easing; Servo easing is a technique used to make a servo move smoothly from one position to another.
slam: Simultaneous Localization and Mapping; Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of an agent's location within it.
SPI: SPI; Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) is a synchronous serial data protocol used by microcontrollers for communicating with one or more peripheral devices quickly over short distances. It can also be used for communication between two microcontrollers.
stm32: A series of ARM Cortex-M based microcontroller ICs; The STM32 series of 32-bit Flash microcontrollers based on the ARM® Cortex®-M processor is designed to offer new degrees of freedom to MCU users.
tactile switch: tactile switch; A tactile switch is a switch whose operation is perceptible by touch. A main area of tactile switches, are tact switches. These switches are small in size and are commonly used in PDAs, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices.
tcrt5000: TCRT5000 Line Following Sensor; The TCRT5000 is a reflective optical sensor that combines an infrared emitter and phototransistor in a single package. It is used to detect the presence of an object by measuring the amount of light reflected from the object.
Torque: Torque; In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force, rotational force or turning effect, depending on the field of study. The concept originated with the studies by Archimedes of the usage of levers.
Transistor: Transistor; A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material usually with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals controls the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.
UART: UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter); UART is a hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable. UART stands for Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter.
Ultrasonic: Ultrasonic Distance/Range Finder; "Ultrasonic refers to frequencies above the upper limit of the human hearing range, which is generally taken as 20 kHz. Ultrasonic distance sensors use ultrasonic waves to measure the distance to an object."
Voltage: Voltage; Voltage, electric potential difference, electric pressure or electric tension is the difference in electric potential energy between two points per unit electric charge. The voltage between two points is equal to the work done per unit of charge against a static electric field to move the test charge between two points.
ws2812: ws2812; The WS2812 is a smart control LED light source that the control circuit and RGB chip are integrated in a package of 5050 components. It internally includes digital port latch and signal reshaping amplification drive circuit. The control circuit can receive and translate data from the microcontroller. The RGB chip can generate a variety of colors.
X11: X11; X11, also known as the X Window System, is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on UNIX-like operating systems. It is based on the X Window System protocol, which was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) in the 1980s.
X11 Forwarding: X11 Forwarding; X11 forwarding is a feature of SSH protocol version 2 that allows a user to connect to a remote host and have the remote host's X11 server forward its display to the user's own X11 server. This allows the user to run graphical applications on the remote host and have them displayed on the local host.

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Robotics Glossary

Find definintions of terms and topics related to robotics

I2C

Gears

Capacitors

Python Virtual Environments

Tact Switches

18650

18650 Battery

How it works article - Batteries

Actuator

Actuator

ADC

Analog to Digital Converter

Algorithm

Algorithm

Android (Operating System)

Android

Android (Robot)

Android

anion

anion

How it works article - Potato Battery

Anode

Anode; an electrode through which the conventional current enters

How it works article - Diodes

APA102

APA102

arduino

An open-source electronics platform based on easy-to-use hardware and software

Battery

Battery

How it works article - Batteries

breadboard

breadboard

How it works article - Breadboards

Buck Converter

Buck Converter

How it works article - Buck Converters

Bundle Adjustment

Bundle Adjustment

How it works article - SLAM

Capacitance

Capacitance

Capacitor

Capacitor

How it works article - Capacitors

Cathode

Cathode; an electrode through which the conventional current leaves

How it works article - Diodes

cation

cation

How it works article - Potato Battery

Conductance

Conductance

Current

Current

debounce

debouncing

How it works article - Tact Switches

DHT11

DHT11

Diode

Diode

How it works article - Diodes

Diode

Diode

Electrode

Electrode

How it works article - Potato Battery

electrolyte