📘 PNDbotics Glossary
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DoF (Degrees of Freedom) | Degrees of Freedom | Hardware > Kinematics | The number of independent joints that determine the robot’s posture and movement. Higher DoF enables more flexible motions. | Joint Count, Axes |
| Actuator | Actuator | Hardware > Core Components | Converts electrical energy into mechanical motion; typically includes motor, reducer, and sensors. Acts as the “muscles” of the robot. | Motor, Joint Motor |
| End-Effector | End Effector | Hardware > Manipulation | Mounted at the end of the robot arm and interacts directly with the environment, such as dexterous hands or grippers. | Robotic Hand, Gripper |
| RCU (Robot Control Unit) | Robot Control Unit | Hardware > Control | Core controller performing low-level real‑time control (current/velocity/torque), safety monitoring, and sensor acquisition. | Main Control Board, Motion Controller |
| NUC (Next Unit of Computing) | Onboard Computer | Hardware > Computing | Compact high‑performance compute module for AI inference, planning, and other compute‑heavy tasks. | Industrial PC, Onboard Computer |
| IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) | IMU | Hardware > Sensors | Measures acceleration and angular velocity to estimate robot orientation and tilt. | Attitude Sensor |
| F/T Sensor (Force/Torque Sensor) | Force/Torque Sensor | Hardware > Sensors | Measures external forces and torques at joints or end‑effector for precise manipulation and safety. | 6‑Axis Force Sensor, FT Sensor |
| BMS (Battery Management System) | Battery Management System | Hardware > Power | Monitors battery voltage, current, temperature, and ensures safe charging/discharging. | Battery Protection System |
🕹️ Operation & System
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teleoperation | Teleoperation | Control | Remotely operating a robot in real‑time via VR, motion capture, or controllers. | Teaching, Remote Control |
| Telemetry | Telemetry | Monitoring | Automatic collection of voltage, current, temperature, load, and logs. | Remote Monitoring |
| E-Stop | Emergency Stop | Safety | Hardware mechanism that immediately cuts motor power. | Emergency Brake |
| Latency | Latency | Performance | Time gap between sensor input and robot response; critical for real‑time control. | Reaction Time |
| Payload | Payload | Performance | Maximum load the robot can safely carry under normal operation. | Load Capacity |
| MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) | Mean Time Between Failures | Reliability | Key metric of long‑term system reliability. | Uptime |
| Joint Limit | Joint Limit | Mechanics > Motion | Minimum and maximum joint angles determined by mechanical structure. | Limit Angle |
| Backdrivability | Backdrivability | Mechanics > Interaction | Whether a human can easily push a robot joint, indicating compliance and safety. | Reverse‑Drive Capability |
⚙️ Control
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WBC (Whole‑Body Control) | Whole‑Body Control | Advanced Control | Coordinates all joints and contact points to achieve stable and optimal full‑body motion. | Global Control |
| MPC (Model Predictive Control) | Model Predictive Control | Optimization | Predicts future states and optimizes control actions for stability. | Predictive Control |
| Impedance Control | Impedance Control | Force Control | Makes the robot behave like a spring‑damper system for compliant interaction. | Compliance Control |
| Admittance Control | Admittance Control | Force Control | Adjusts position output based on force input; used in low‑impedance hardware. | — |
| Trajectory Planning | Trajectory Planning | Path Planning | Computes smooth, safe, dynamically consistent paths. | Trajectory Generation |
| Footstep Planner | Footstep Planner | Walking Control | Generates stable foot placements and timing for biped robots. | Gait Planner |
🧠 AI & Perception
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VLA Model | Vision‑Language‑Action Model | AI > Cognition | Integrates vision and language to generate robot actions; acts as the robot’s “intelligent interpreter.” | AI Brain, VLM |
| Sim‑to‑Real | Sim‑to‑Real | AI > Workflow | Transfers policies trained in simulation to real robots. | S2R |
| Grasping Policy | Grasping Policy | AI > Control | AI‑generated grasp actions and finger configurations. | Grasp Algorithm |
| Point Cloud | Point Cloud | Perception | 3D point data from depth sensors for recognition, SLAM, and navigation. | 3D Data |
| SLAM | SLAM | Perception > Navigation | Builds maps and estimates robot pose in unknown environments. | Localization & Mapping |
| Skeleton Tracking | Skeleton Tracking | Perception | Tracks human body joints for teleoperation or teaching. | Human Pose Tracking |
🖥️ Simulation & Software
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MuJoCo | MuJoCo Physics Engine | Simulation > Physics | High‑performance physics engine widely used for humanoid robots, RL, and control research. | Physics Engine |
| ROS 2 | Robot Operating System 2 | Software > Framework | Modular middleware for robot communication, scheduling, and development. | ROS |
| URDF | Unified Robot Description Format | Simulation/Modeling > Format | XML format describing robot links, joints, inertia, collision, sensors, and visuals. | URDF File |
| MJCF | MuJoCo XML Model | Simulation/Modeling > Format | MuJoCo’s XML format for defining links, joints, materials, dynamics, and contact. | MuJoCo XML |
| SDF | Simulation Description Format | Simulation/Modeling > Format | Rich simulation format used with Gazebo for robots, sensors, and environments. | SDF File |
| SDK | Software Development Kit | Software > Framework | Developer toolkit including APIs, libs, tools. PNDbotics SDK unifies communication and control. | Robot SDK |
| DDS | Data Distribution Service | Middleware > Real‑Time | High‑performance Pub/Sub protocol used by ROS 2. Backbone of PNDbotics communication. | PubSub Middleware |
| CycloneDDS | CycloneDDS | Middleware > DDS | Lightweight DDS implementation used by ROS 2 and PNDbotics SDK. | DDS Implementation |
🔧 Kinematics & Dynamics
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinematics | Kinematics | Science | Relationship between joint angles and end‑effector pose. | — |
| Dynamics | Dynamics | Science | Relationship between forces, torques, and motion. | — |
| Forward Kinematics (FK) | Forward Kinematics | Control | Computes end‑effector pose from joint angles. | FK |
| Inverse Kinematics (IK) | Inverse Kinematics | Control | Computes joint angles from target end‑effector pose. | IK |
| ZMP (Zero Moment Point) | Zero Moment Point | Stability | Ensures footstep stability; ZMP must stay inside support polygon. | — |
| CoM (Center of Mass) | Center of Mass | Stability | Represents mass distribution; key for walking and balance. | Center of Gravity |
🌍 Coordinate Frames
| Abbreviation / Full Name | Term | Category | Definition | Alias |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cartesian Space | Cartesian Space | Control | Describes end‑effector pose using X/Y/Z and orientation. | Coordinate Space |
| Joint Space | Joint Space | Control | Represents robot configuration in joint angles. | Angle Space |
| Base Frame | Base Frame | Frames | Global frame relative to world. | World Frame |
| Tool Frame | Tool Frame | Frames | Reference frame for end‑effector control. | EE Frame |