It would have been, 20 years ago.
A paint conveyer belt is not a robot. A sprinkler system is not a robot. A CnC machine might be a robot. A conveyer belt that sorts items might be a robot. A roomba is a robot. And all of these function just fine.
> It would have been, 20 years ago.
No, it would have been called what it is both then and now; an asynchronous message emitted by a device having sensors capable of detecting when to do so.