A robot is an electro-mechanical device that can perform autonomous or preprogrammed tasks. A robot may act under the direct control of a human (eg. the robotic arm of the space shuttle) or autonomously under the control of a programmed computer. Robots may be used to perform tasks that are too dangerous or difficult for humans to implement directly (e.g. nuclear waste clean up) or may be used to automate repetitive tasks that can be performed more cheaply by a robot than by the employment of a human (e.g. automobile production.)

Specifically, robot can be used to describe an intelligent mechanical device in the form of a human. This form of robot (culturally referred to as androids) is common in science fiction stories. However, such robots are yet to become common-place in reality.

Internet bots are named after the word robot because they perform mundane, repetitive tasks.