What is a robot and how does it sense the world?

You've probably seen robots in movies — shiny metal helpers, rolling droids, maybe a friendly trash-compactor with feelings. But what actually IS a robot? And here's the wild part: a robot can't see or hear or feel the way you do. So how does it know what's going on around it?
A robot is a machine that can move and do tasks on its own, following instructions from a computer brain inside it. That's the key difference from, say, a toaster. A toaster just sits there until you push the lever. A robot decides when to move its arms, when to roll forward, when to stop — all by itself, using its programmed instructions.
