The term cobot is a blend of collaborative and robot, and the concept dates back to 1996, the brainchild of researchers J Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin of Northwestern University in the US. Early cobots were unable to move independently, steered only by humans as a safety measure, though sensor technology and other advances mean that today’s cobots can operate on their own. On the model of robotics, the related term cobotics refers to the science of designing and building such devices, or also to the general idea of humans collaborating seamlessly and naturally with robots.