A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm , usually programmable , with similar functions to a human arm ; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot . The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion (such as in an articulated robot ) or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain . The terminus of the kinematic chain of the manipulator is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand .

An entertainment robot is, as the name indicates, a robot that is not made for utilitarian use, as in production or domestic services, but for the sole subjective pleasure of the human. It serves, usually the owner or his housemates, guests or clients. Robotics technologies are applied in many areas of culture and entertainment.

A medical robot is a robot used in the medical sciences . They include, but are not limited to, surgical robots . These are in most telemanipulators , which use the surgeon's actions on one side to control the "effector" on the other side.

Service robots assist human beings, typically by performing a job that is dirty, dull, distant, dangerous or repetitive, including household chores . They typically are autonomous and/or operated by a built-in control system, with manual override options. The term "service robot" does not have a strict technical definition. The International Federation of Robotics ( IFR ) has proposed a tentative definition: "A service robot is a robot which operates semi- or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations."

An unmanned ground vehicle ( UGV ) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground and without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it may be inconvenient, dangerous, or impossible to have a human operator present. Generally, the vehicle will have a set of sensors to observe the environment, and will either autonomously make decisions about its behavior or pass the information to a human operator at a different location who will control the vehicle through teleoperation .

Microbotics (or microrobotics ) is the field of miniature robotics, in particular mobile robots with characteristic dimensions less than 1 mm. The term can also be used for robots capable of handling micrometer size components.

For any mobile device, the ability to navigate in its environment is important. Avoiding dangerous situations such as collisions and unsafe conditions ( temperature , radiation, exposure to weather, etc.) comes first, but if the robot has a purpose that relates to specific places in the robot environment, it must find those places. This article will present an overview of the skill of navigation and try to identify the basic blocks of a robot navigation system, types of navigation systems, and closer look at its related building components.

Nanorobotics is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots whose components are at or near the scale of a nanometre (10 meters). More specifically, nanorobotics (as opposed to microrobotics ) refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots , with devices ranging in size from 0.1–10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. The terms nanobot , nanoid , nanite , nanomachine , or nanomite have also been used to describe such devices currently under research and development.

A space probe is a robotic spacecraft that does not orbit the Earth, but, instead, explores further into outer space . A space probe may approach the Moon ; travel through interplanetary space ; flyby , orbit , or land on other planetary bodies ; or enter interstellar space .