There are several classifications of industrial robots: by type of control, by degree of mobility, by application and specificity of operations.
According to the type of control:
Controlled robots: require an operator to control their every movement. Not widespread due to narrow fields of application. They are not exactly robots.
Automatic and semi-autonomous robots: they act strictly according to a preset program, often have no sensors and are unable to correct their actions and cannot do without a worker.
Autonomous: they can perform a programmed cycle of actions without human intervention, according to predefined algorithms and correcting their actions as needed. Such robots are able to completely cover the field of activities on their part of the conveyor, without the involvement of a live workforce.
By function and scope of application:
Robots are divided by purpose and performed functions, here are just some of them: industrial robots are universal, welding, machine tools, cutting, picking, assembly, packaging, storage, painting.
This list is not complete: the number of all kinds of variants is constantly growing and it is impossible to list them all in one article. The only thing you can say with confidence is that there is hardly an area of human activity where robots couldn’t make human labor more creative by taking all the monotonous and dangerous parts of work by themselves.
Other methods of classification
Every encyclopedia, every reference book and every manufacturer has its own classification and typology of robots. Not surprisingly, it is often determined by the strictly specific needs and private approach of whoever makes it.
Does this prevent us from looking at some examples and understanding what they can do? No, of course not.