Source policy
RobotCosts records where every figure came from, when it was retrieved and what kind of document it is. This page explains what each kind of source can and cannot support.
Field by field
What each source is trusted for
| Source type | Trusted for | Not trusted for |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer store | Current price, availability, configuration options, what is in the box | Independent performance claims |
| Manufacturer product page | List price, headline specifications, positioning | Measured performance, real-world battery life |
| Manufacturer technical documentation | Rated payload, reach, degrees of freedom, environmental limits | Price, which it rarely states and never updates |
| Manufacturer developer documentation | ROS and ROS 2 support, SDK and API availability, supported languages | Price and availability |
| Authorized distributor | Regional price, regional availability, lead time | Specifications where the manufacturer has published its own |
| Retailer and marketplace | Observed street price, stock status | Specifications, which are frequently copied and stale |
| News and trade press | Announcement dates, announced target prices, discontinuations | Current price; reporting is a snapshot, not a live figure |
| Independent community testing | Measured behaviour explicitly defined as an observed field | Rated manufacturer figures, which it does not replace |
| RobotCosts calculation | Nothing on its own; it is always labelled an estimate | Any claim presented as a fact |
Directness of the source
How claims are supported
RobotCosts also records how directly each source supports a claim:
- Official: the manufacturer states it about its own product.
- Authorized: a seller the manufacturer authorizes states it.
- Reported: a secondary source states it.
- RobotCosts estimate: nobody stated it; RobotCosts calculated it, and it is presented as a calculation.
RobotCosts considers the source type first, then how directly it supports the claim. An official manufacturer page can still take priority over a secondary report even when that page is not the preferred source for the field.
Every value links back
Citation and retention
Each recorded value stores the exact source URL, retrieval date and publisher. Those details appear beside the value on the robot page. RobotCosts does not publish a value without a source document.
Documents are rechecked on a 120-day cycle. When a source disappears, the recorded value keeps its original retrieval date. A price that was true in March still documents that March price in September.
No silent winner
When sources disagree
Where a field permits one value and two sources of comparable authority disagree, the conflict is recorded and the record is held for human review. Where a field legitimately permits several values, such as supported programming languages, every value is shown with its own citation.
The full resolution order is documented in the methodology.