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Humanoid Robotics Glossary

The definitive reference for humanoid robotics terminology — hardware, software, AI, and mechanical design.

15 terms defined · 3 categories
aihardwaresoftware
ai
Imitation LearningA machine learning approach where a robot learns to perform tasks by observing and replicating demonstrations provided by a human expert, rather than through explicit programming or trial-and-error reinforcement.→
Vision-Language-Action ModelA neural network architecture that jointly processes visual observations and natural language instructions to produce robot joint actions, enabling instruction-following manipulation without task-specific programming.→
Zero-Shot GeneralizationThe ability of a robot AI model to successfully perform tasks it has never been specifically trained on, by applying knowledge learned from related tasks during training.→
hardware
BackdrivabilityThe ability of a robot joint to be moved by external forces acting on the output side — that is, whether an external force can 'backtrack' through the transmission to displace the joint without the motor actively commanding it.→
Degrees of FreedomThe number of independent axes of movement a robot joint system can execute, determining the range and complexity of motions the robot can perform.→
Dexterous ManipulationThe ability of a robotic hand or end-effector to perform complex, multi-fingered object manipulation tasks requiring fine motor control, in-hand object reorientation, and precise force regulation.→
End-EffectorThe terminal device attached to a robot arm that directly interacts with the environment — in humanoids, typically a multi-fingered hand, but may be a specialized gripper, tool, or sensor.→
Gait CycleThe complete sequence of leg movements from one foot contact to the next contact of the same foot, comprising stance phase (foot on ground) and swing phase (foot in air), which defines the rhythmic pattern of bipedal locomotion.→
Harmonic DriveA compact, zero-backlash gear transmission using a flexible spline deformed by an elliptical wave generator, achieving high gear ratios (50:1 to 320:1) in a lightweight form factor widely used in robot joints.→
ProprioceptionA robot's internal sensory awareness of its own body state — joint angles, velocities, accelerations, and applied torques — derived from encoders, IMUs, and force-torque sensors rather than external cameras.→
Tendon-DrivenA robotic actuation architecture in which joints are driven by cables or tendons routed from remote actuators, enabling high DOF distal joints (like fingers) to be controlled by motors located proximally in the arm or body.→
software
Inverse KinematicsThe mathematical process of computing the joint angles required to achieve a desired end-effector position and orientation, working backwards from the task-space goal to the joint-space solution.→
Sim-to-Real TransferThe process of training a robot control policy in simulation and successfully deploying it on physical hardware, bridging the gap between simulated and real-world physics.→
URDFUnified Robot Description Format — an XML file format that describes a robot's physical structure including links, joints, mass properties, collision geometry, and visual appearance, serving as the universal standard for robot kinematics specification.→
Whole-Body ControlA robot control framework that simultaneously optimizes joint torques across all degrees of freedom to achieve multiple objectives — balance, end-effector positioning, joint limit compliance — as a unified optimization problem.→