Those appliances are perhaps robots in the broad sense sometimes used in the field of robots, with a definition something like "any machine which can replace or

Those appliances are perhaps robots in the broad sense sometimes used in the field of robots, with a definition something like "any machine which can replace or assist any physical task ordinarily done by humans." But most of them are not robots in the sense generally used by laypeople, which is a definition more like "a machine which can accomplish some general class of physical tasks normally done my humans by moving around in and manipulating objects in an environment which has not been heavily modified for the robot."