Glossary of Robot Terms - I

• Industrial robot - A reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks.
• Insect robot - A small robot designed to imitate insect behaviors rather than complex human behaviors.
• Integrated Circuit (IC) - An electronic circuit formed on a small piece of semiconducting material, performing the same function as a larger circuit made from discrete components.
• IP address (Internet Protocol address) - A unique number consisting of four numbers, called octets, separated by periods (also called a 'dotted-quad'). Each octet can contain any value between 0 and 255 resulting in a possible 4,294,967,296 unique values. Out of the almost 4.3 billion possible combinations, certain values are restricted from use as typical IP addresses. For example, the IP address 0.0.0.0 is reserved for the default network and the address 255.255.255.255 is used for broadcasts. IP addresses are usually assigned to internet service providers within region-based blocks so an IP address can often be used to identify the region or country from which a computer is connecting to the Internet, possibly showing the user's general location.