Reference
Glossary
Terms used across the robotics, AI and network sections, defined once and without a sales pitch.
- Machine economyRobotics
- Machines that can be identified, can prove work, and can settle with people or with other machines — not just a robot next to a token.
- Physical AIAI
- Models whose output is motion, contact or a real-time decision in the world. Distinct from a chatbot, even when language is part of the instruction.
- DePINNetworks
- Decentralized physical infrastructure networks. People deploy hardware; the network checks a useful job; rewards are meant to track that job.
- DePAIAI
- Decentralized physical AI. A label for physical-AI systems coordinated with open machine networks: data, robots, and verification outside one vendor cloud.
- HumanoidRobotics
- A robot shaped for buildings and tools made for people. A form factor, not proof that the stack is general.
- AMRRobotics
- Autonomous mobile robot. A machine that moves goods or itself through a site without a fixed track. Warehouse workhorses, usually less photographed than humanoids.
- ActuatorRobotics
- The motor and joint that turn a decision into force. Where a lot of cost, heat and failure actually live.
- SLAMRobotics
- Simultaneous localization and mapping. The robot builds a map and finds itself in that map at the same time, mostly from onboard sensors.
- GNSS correctionNetworks
- Extra data that sharpens satellite navigation from “nearby” to centimetres. A service machines buy. Phone maps rarely need it; farm robots and survey gear do.
- Sensor fusionAI
- Combining camera, range, inertial and other readings into one belief about the scene. One perfect sensor is not the usual design.
- Vision-language-actionAI
- Models that take words plus images and output movement. Promising, early, and easy to over-claim from a tidy demo.
- Edge inferenceAI
- Running a model on the machine or very near it, so the next decision does not wait on a distant data centre.
- Machine identityRobotics
- A durable answer to which physical unit this is, checkable by parties who do not share the manufacturer’s login.
- Machine RWANetworks
- A real-world-asset pitch tied to machine revenue. Only as serious as the audit of the machine, the work, and the cash. Not a synonym for “robot stock.”
- Proof of physical workNetworks
- Evidence that a device was where it claimed, and did the coverage, sample or compute it was paid for. The whole game in DePIN. Easy to fake if the check is weak.
- HotspotNetworks
- A small device deployed by a participant to provide coverage or sensing. The original DePIN object. Useless if nobody consumes what it offers.
- Digital twinRobotics
- A software model of a specific machine or site, used to monitor or simulate it. Valuable when it tracks the real unit. Decorative when it is only a 3D render.
- FleetRobotics
- Many machines operated as one service. The unit of robotics businesses, insurers and financing — and the reason identity has to scale past a single serial number in a spreadsheet.
- World modelAI
- A model that predicts how a scene will change, not only how to caption it. Used, in research and early products, so a robot can imagine the next second before it moves.