Robotics Glossary
Find definitions of terms and topics related to robotics
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](/resources/how_it_works/), here are a sample of the articles you'll find in there:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- CAD
- Computer Aided Design
- "Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or workstations) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. CAD software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve communications through documentation, and to create a database for manufacturing."
- 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.
- Cluster
- A connected group of Computers
- A computer cluster is a set of loosely or tightly connected computers that work together so that, in many respects, they can be viewed as a single system. Unlike grid computers, computer clusters have each node set to perform the same task, controlled and scheduled by software.
- 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 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.
- eeprom
- Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory
- EEPROM (also written E2PROM and pronounced "e-e-prom", "double-e prom", "e-squared", or simply "e-prom") stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices to store relatively small amounts of data but allowing individual bytes to be erased and reprogrammed.
- 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.
- FreeCAD
- FreeCAD
- FreeCAD is a free and open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler and a building information modeling software with finite-element-method support. It is a free and open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler and a building information modeling software with finite-element-method support.
- 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.
- 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.
- IDE
- Integrated Development Environment
- An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger. Examples of popular IDEs are: Microsoft VS Code, Thonny, PyCharm, Mu, Arduino IDE and Arduino Lab for MicroPython
- 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.
- Machine Learning
- Machine Learning
- Machine learning (ML) is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience. It is seen as a subset of artificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms build a mathematical model based on sample data, known as "training data", in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to do so.
- 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.
- NAS
- Network Attached Storage
- Network-attached storage (NAS) is a file-level (as opposed to block-level storage) computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration.
- 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."
- Numpy
- Numpy
- NumPy is a library for the Python programming language, adding support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices, along with a large collection of high-level mathematical functions to operate on these arrays. It is a library for the Python programming language, adding support for large, multi-dimensional arrays and matrices, along with a large collection of high-level mathematical functions to operate on these arrays.
- NVMe
- Non-Volatile Memory Express
- Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is a logical device interface specification for accessing non-volatile storage media attached via a PCI Express (PCIe) bus. The specification was developed by the NVM Express Workgroup, which consists of more than 90 companies; Amber Huffman of Intel was the working group's chair.
- 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).
- OLAP
- Online Analytical Processing
- Online analytical processing (OLAP) is an approach to answering multi-dimensional analytical (MDA) queries swiftly in computing. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational database, report writing and data mining.
- 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.
- 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.
- ram
- Random Access Memory
- Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code. It is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in any order, typically used to store working data and machine code.
- 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.
- SQL
- Structured Query Language
- SQL (Structured Query Language) is a domain-specific language used in programming and designed for managing data held in a relational database management system (RDBMS), or for stream processing in a relational data stream management system (RDSMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data, in which there are relations between different entities/variables of the data.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
How it works article - Batteries
How it works article - Breadboards
How it works article - Buck Converters
How it works article - Clusters
How it works article - Tact Switches
How it works article - Potato Battery
How it works article - Gears
How it works article - Encoders
How it works article - I2C
How it works article - Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs)
How it works article - MEMS
How it works article - Stepper Motors
How it works article - MQTT
How it works article - Machine Learning
How it works article - SLAM
How it works article - Pots
How it works article - Tact Switches
How it works article - Gears
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