[EricH]

I took a look at the website of a maker of military and police/bomb disposal robots today after I made my earlier post. If "robot" is defined as it was above, that manufacturer would be guilty of false advertising.

I think what has really happened is that the definition of robot has expanded (again--after all, it used to be only used for human-resembling mechanical creations) and the robotics industry as a group has been slow to recognize that fact (with the exception of some manufacturers who push the new definition). Dictionaries are even slower to recognize the change officially.

I think the best term if you want to be totally correct is "semi-autonomous robot". It's a robot, but it relies on operator interface.