What constitutes a "robot?"

In the 1950s a "robot" was typically defined as "a machine-made man." Today's Oxford English dictionary says "a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically." Or Bekey says "we define a robot as a machine that senses, thinks, and acts." (Autonomous Robots, MIT Press, 2005, pg 2) By these more modern definitions even my use of Asa to control a plasma or ion source was a "robot." I had thought of it at the time as "interfacing", a continuation/extension of my work with computerized plasma diagnostics. Several of us taught a computer interfacing course in those days (about 30 years ago). I guess I had begun assembling my robotics lab even back then.