An assembly line robot (like welding or material handling, I’ve worked with ABB, Fanuc, Motoman, Panasonic) are still called robot “arms” with the end portion often called the “wrist” so there is a degree of anthropomorphizing even if it’s not the whole body. And they do resemble an arm, however with 6 axis motion the motion is more like from your hips to your wrist than shoulder to wrist.
We call them the same for animals. Those are words we have for joints and appendages. They have nothing to do with being human. These robots have joints and appendages, so we use those names. We also call connections in pipes joints, not because they resemble humans but because the definition of the word includes them.
An assembly line robot (like welding or material handling, I’ve worked with ABB, Fanuc, Motoman, Panasonic) are still called robot “arms” with the end portion often called the “wrist” so there is a degree of anthropomorphizing even if it’s not the whole body. And they do resemble an arm, however with 6 axis motion the motion is more like from your hips to your wrist than shoulder to wrist.
We call them the same for animals. Those are words we have for joints and appendages. They have nothing to do with being human. These robots have joints and appendages, so we use those names. We also call connections in pipes joints, not because they resemble humans but because the definition of the word includes them.
Ok, then a vibrator is a robotic dick.
Iirc, traffic lights are called robots in some African English dialects. Although it’s more like one of those regional peculiarities.