About this glossary

A glossary for people new to embodied AI: 2,926 terms in 14 categories, ordered as a learning path. Every entry has a one-line definition, a plain-language explanation, an example, related terms and source links. The site is bilingual; the English edition is adapted for English readers from the Chinese original rather than translated line by line.

How to use it

• The home page starts with the 240 Essential entries, which you can read straight through. Switch to “Essential + Common” or “All” to see the other 883 common and 1,803 advanced terms.
• Search works with English, Chinese and abbreviations (VLA, inverse kinematics, Unitree) and always covers every level.
• Every term has its own page you can link to, such as Inverse Kinematics (IK).

The 14 categories

First the robot body (form factors, parts, how it moves, how it is controlled, how it senses), then software and simulation, then data, training and models, and finally companies and the industry's vocabulary. Each category is split into sections that go from basic to advanced.

1. 1 Core Concepts & Tasks150
2. 2 Robot Types & Products179
3. 3 Hardware & Body Parts195
4. 4 Mechanics & Kinematics168
5. 5 Control & Planning203
6. 6 Perception & Sensors307
7. 7 Software & Tooling232
8. 8 Simulation & Evaluation210
9. 9 Data & Collection177
10. 10 Training & Learning Methods203
11. 11 Models & Architectures184
12. 12 Landmark Models & Projects332
13. 13 Companies & Institutions237
14. 14 Industry Jargon & Business149

How it was made

Entries were researched and drafted with AI assistance, then arranged into the learning path. Every entry links to its sources so you can check them yourself.

The companies, robots and landmark-models categories, plus all 240 Essential entries, went through a separate fact-check: a fresh round of research that compared each entry with its sources and fixed the errors it found. That pass was also AI-assisted rather than a line-by-line human review, so mistakes are still possible.

Facts that change, such as companies, products and models, are current as of 2026-09-30; some entries carry their own “As of” date.

Corrections

Found an error or a missing term? Open an issue on GitHub.

Citing and reuse

Content is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may share and adapt it with attribution, but not for commercial purposes. Suggested attribution:

Kelip (可lip), Embodied AI Glossary, https://embodiedterms.com/en/

When you cite a single term, please link to its own page.

Downloads

• JSON: English · Chinese (all terms, categories and sources)
• Full text: English · Chinese, with an index for AI tools at llms.txt
• GitHub repository: all the data and the scripts that build this site; code under the MIT license

Who made it

Compiled by Kelip (可lip).