Special-purpose Robot

A robot that does dangerous or extreme-environment work in place of people — bomb disposal, firefighting, inspection, underwater.

“Special-purpose robot” is a classification commonly used in China, standing alongside “industrial robot” and “service robot,” referring to robots that carry out specialized tasks in dangerous, extreme, or hard-to-reach environments. Common types include bomb-disposal robots, firefighting robots, power-grid and utility-tunnel inspection robots, nuclear-plant maintenance robots, mining and tunnel robots, underwater robots, and space robots; military, police, and emergency-response agencies are major users. These robots typically need to be explosion-proof, waterproof, heat-resistant, or radiation-resistant, and many still rely mainly on teleoperation with only partial autonomy. Quadruped robots have seen fast-growing use in inspection, firefighting, and rescue work in recent years, making this one of the earlier areas where embodied robotics has found real-world deployment.

ExampleAt a substation, a quadruped robot patrols a set route, reads gauges, and checks temperatures, replacing a human's overnight inspection rounds.

Also called

Special-operations Robot

Related

Inspection Robot · Quadruped Robot · Dirty, Dull, and Dangerous (3D) Jobs · Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) · Teleoperation · Service Robot

Sources

百度百科：特种机器人 (Chinese)