are robots not a subset of automation?
I asked a roboticist to "define a robot" and he said "technically anything with a sensor and an actuator" so, like, a washing machine is a robot
Automation is just a major use case. Category error there. A robot is a kind of machine. Automation is a function.
The sensor/actuator definition is silly. A thermostat would qualify. Your friend sounds uninterested in the philosophy. It’s like dismissing AI as “any software”
“Sufficiently complex loosely biomorphic machine with a domain adapted universal computing capability” is a better definition. Feedback loops and computing element are necessary but not sufficient.