[JCricket]

The difference between robotics and automation, as I understand it.

A robot is a machine that does multiple tasks. The generally require the "item" to be moved and repostioned while a task is performed on them. It can also be arms just doing tasks on the "item" - item being the production unit to be sold. These machines, at least all of the ones I have worked on and seen, are quite complex and run on computer programs.

Automation.

Take a machine that feeds a piece of cardboard into it. As the cardboard moves through the machine there are static steel rails. These rails force the cardboard to bend and thus form a box. There are no complex programs, no multiple moving parts acting on the cardboard. This is automation. AUtomation is by and far more common than actual robotics.

And yes, I will have to accept the common understanding of the term.

TJ, to answer so what? I guess accuracy means little to nothing to you. Thats what.


EDIT - to qualify further, I have been out of the work force force for over ten years, so yeah my data is likely skewed a little.