I use robots in my day job for industrial automation. $12k to 60k, SCARA or 6-axis robot arms, from Fanuc, ABB, Epson, Denso etc.
We call them "robots" and not just "machines" or "actuators" like the rest of the equipment because, in comparison with the rest of the industrial LEGO with which they interact, they are incredibly versatile.
They're not sci-fi "Do what I mean" versatile, no, but if the requirements change (or are likely to change) then they're probably going to be your easiest path to accommodate those changes, without buying new parts. Sure, you can, say, design in a shim pack to precisely set the travel of a pneumatic cylinder (to make one of six degrees of freedom able to be changed), but with a robot you just bolt the fixture down to the concrete at woodworker precision and let the robot programmer (sigh...) accomodate any tolerance you may need to take up.
We call them "robots" and not just "machines" or "actuators" like the rest of the equipment because, in comparison with the rest of the industrial LEGO with which they interact, they are incredibly versatile.
They're not sci-fi "Do what I mean" versatile, no, but if the requirements change (or are likely to change) then they're probably going to be your easiest path to accommodate those changes, without buying new parts. Sure, you can, say, design in a shim pack to precisely set the travel of a pneumatic cylinder (to make one of six degrees of freedom able to be changed), but with a robot you just bolt the fixture down to the concrete at woodworker precision and let the robot programmer (sigh...) accomodate any tolerance you may need to take up.