You would have to say player pianos are robots if you ever saw
industrial robots work.  They do what they are programmed to do:
they pull or push or spray or pickup something.  They cause something
to move.  A player piano pushes a wippen or a piano key to make them
move.  It does not know music but makes it.

I would also call player pianos computers.  In fact, many say the
player piano is the second "external media data storage computer" ever
made, the first being the spinning jenny which wove multi-color cloth.

Of course, the music box and barrel piano/organ would also be an
external media data storage device as well.  These go back to
medieval days.  Before the barrel there was a planchette or board
with pins in it.

D.L. Bullock    St. Louis
www.thepianoworld.com